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, an eminent German musician, was born at Eisenach in 1685, and made such proficiency in his art that at the age of eighteen, he was appointed organist of the new church of Arnstadt. In 1708, he settled at Weimar, where he was appointed court musician and director of the duke’s concert, and in a trial of skill, he obtained a victory over the celebrated French organist, who had previously challenged and conquered all the organists of France and Italy. This happened at Dresden, to which Bach went on purpose to contend with this musical Goliath. He afterwards became master of the chapel to the prince of Anhalt Cotben, and to the duke of Weissenfels. As a performer on the organ, as well as a composer for that instrument, he long stood unrivalled. He died at Leipsic in 1754, and left four sons all eminent musicians, of whom some account is given by Dr. Burney in his History of Music, vol. IV. and in his Musical Tour in Germany.

, a French miscellaneous writer, was a native of Paris, and a man of general knowledge. In 1762, he commenced a journal “Historique et Litteraire,” and after his death in 1771, one of his friends collected his manuscript notes, and published them in 1777, in 9 vols. 12mo, under the title of “Memoires Secrets,” which have been continued since as far as thirty volumes. There is much political history in these memoirs, with many private anecdotes of the principal personages concerned they contain also criticisms, poetry, temporary history, and such materials as generally ii!l our magazines and reviews, but with a good deal of truth, they contain a certain proportion of scandal. Bachaumont also published “Lettre Critique sur le Louvre, L' Opera, la Place Louis XV. et les Salles de Spectacle,” 1752, 8vo; “Essai sur la peinture, la sculpture, et Parchitecture,” 1752, 8vo and an edition of Quintilian, with a translation by Gedoyn, and a life of the translator, 1752, 4 vols. 12 mo.

, of Tholonse, but originally of Lucca, studied sculpture and architecture at Rome under Michael Angelo. On returning to his native country, he introduced a true taste in those arts, instead of the barbarous manner which had till then prevailed. His works in sculpture that still subsist in several churches of that city, always excite admiration, though some of them have since been gilt, which has deprived them of that grace and delicacy which Bachelier had given them. He was still exercising his art in 1553.

, an eminent lawyer and critic, was born in 1721 at Hohendorp, and sent in his twelfth year to Leipsic, where he was educated under Gesner and Ernest, who was particularly fond of him, and encouraged his studies with a fatherly care. Having gone through a course of classical learning, philosophy, and mathematics, he applied to the study of law, and in 1750, he was created doctor in that faculty and professor of law, to which in 1753, was added the place of ecclesiastical assessor at Leipsic. All these offices he discharged with the highest public reputation and personal esteem, but was cut off by a premature death in 1756. He was a man of extensive learning, critically acquainted with Greek and Latin, and well versed in history and antiquities. His principal publications were, 1. “Dissertatio de Mysteriis Eleusinis,” Leipsic, 1745, 4to. 2. “Divus Trajanus, sive de legibus Trajani cornmentarius,” 1747, 8vo. 3. “Historia jurisprudent! Romany, 1754, 8vo. 4.” Xenophontis Oeconomicum,“1749, 8vo. 5.” JBrissonius de formulis,“1754, fol. 6.” Bergeri qeconomia Juris,“1755, 4tq. 7.” Opuscula ad historian! etjurisprudentiam spectantia," collected and published by Christ. Adolph. Klotz, Halle, 1767, 8vo.

, was born at Cologne in 1554, and brought up to business. He went to Leipsic, where he married but his tranquillity was soon disturbed, owing to his having exchanged the opinions of Luther for those of Calvin. At first there were nothing but suspicions against him, and his enemies were satisfied with removing him from his public employments but the times changing, he obtained the office of senator, and afterwards in the year 1585 that of Echevin, and about three years after that of consul. The Elector Christian I. dying in 1591, Bachovius was importuned to profess Lutheranism, and on refusing, they obliged him to quit his posts. He had np regard to the advice which was given him to retire, though they represented to him the danger of a prison he thought that this flight would give occasion to his enemies to tell the world, that he was not conscious of his innocence but in the year 1593 he was forced to give way to the popular commotions, and to depart from Leipsic. He went first to Serveste, and the year following to the Palatinate, not without the loss of almost all his effects. He found a kind protector in the elector Palatine, and he executed several offices of profit and honour at Heidelberg till his death, which happened the 27th of February, 1614. He published a commentary on the catechism of the Palatinate.

, a very able lawyer of the seventeenth century, was the son of the preceding, and was born at Heidelberg, and probably educated there. He was, however, celebrated for his knowledge of the civil law, when Heidelberg was taken by count Tilly in 1622, and the university dissolved. This obliged him to leave the place, but he appears to have returned soon after, and to have endeavoured to support himself for some time by giving private lessons to the few pupils whom the siege had not driven away. In 1624, he published his " Exercitationes ad partem posteriorem Chiliados Antonii Fabri, de erroribus interpretum, et de interpretibus juris,' 7 fol. The same year he entered into a correspondence with the learned Cuueus of Leyden, to whom he communicated his intention of leaving Heidelberg, as the university, then about to be restored, was to be composed of catholics, while he was disposed towards the principles of the reformed religion. He intimated also to Cuneus that he had no higher ambition, should he come to Leyden, than to give private lessons. During this correspondence an offer was made to Cuneus of a professorship in the academy of Franeker, and as he could not accept it, he took this opportunity of recommending Bachovius, but the latter had rendered himself obnoxious there by writing against Mark Lycklama, formerly one of the professors, and still one of the curators of the academy.

In 1627, Bachovius published his treatise “De Pignoribus et Hypothecis” and about the same time, Otto Tabor, a young Lutheran, and a student at Strasburgh, sent him a treatise on law which he had written, and requested his advice concerning it. Bachovius, on reading the manuscript, conceived a very high opinion of the author, and imparted to him his wish to come to Strasburgh, provided he could gain a subsistence by private teaching, and at the same time assj^red him that although he was of the reformed religion, he should give no person any reason to complain on that head, as his opinions were rather of the Lutheran than the Calvinistic system. The academy having heard of his intentions, desired Tabor to assure him that he should meet with a kind reception, but they afterwards so entirely changed their sentiments, that when he arrived, the law professors forbid his private teaching, much to the disappointment of many of the students. He then returned to Spires, and afterwards to Heidelberg, where he professed his return to the Catholic religion, and the university being restored, was again appointed to a professor’s chair. What became of him afterwards is not known. Besides the works already mentioned, he published “DisputationUm Miscellanearum de variis Juris Givilis materiis, Jiber unus,” Heid. 1604, 8vo “Notae in Paratitla Wesembecii super Pandectas,” Cologne, 1611, 4to “Examen rationalium Antonii Fabri,” 1612, 8vo; “Notre et animadversioncs ad disputationes Hieronymi Trentleni,” Francfort, 1617, 4to the fourth edition of this work, printed at Cologne in 1688, was enlarged to 3 vols. 4to “Observationes ad Joannis Papon is arresta” Francf. 1628, fol. “In Institutionum Justiniani jus Libros IV. Commentarii Theorici et Practici,” Francf. 1628, 4to. Four of his letters to Cuneus are in Barman’s edition of Cuneus’s Letters, published at Leyden in 1725, 8vo.

, surnamed the Painter, born at Genoa in 1639, went to Rome about his fourteenth year, where he placed himself with a dealer in pictures, at whose house he had frequent opportunities of seeing Bernini, of whom he received good advice in his art and assistance in his fortune. His first essays were the strokes of a masterly pencil, and he was thenceforward employed in capital works among others the cupola of Jesus at Rome, a grand and complicated performance, which it is impossible sufficiently to admire. But Bacici’s chief excellence lay in portrait-painting. He drew that of a man who had been dead twenty years. He began by chalking out a head from his own imagination then, retouching his work by little and little, according to the suggestions of those who had seen the person while alive, he at length succeeded in finishing a portrait acknowledged to be a Complete resemblance. Bacici painted with so much ease, that his hand in a considerable degree kept pace with the impetuosity Df his genius. His ideas were great and bold, sometimes fantastical his figures have an astonishing relief. He was a good colourist, and excellent in foreshortening, but he is reproached with incorrectness in his drawing, and a bad taste in his draperies. Nevertheless his works are much esteemed. He died in 1709.

, an eminent portrait and historical painter, was born at Harlingen, in 1609, but spent the greatest part of his life at Amsterdam and by all the writers on this subject, he is mentioned as an extraordinary painter, particularly of portraits, which he executed with strength, spirit, and a graceful resemblance. He was remarkable for an uncommon readiness of hand, and freedom of pencil and his incredible expedition in his manner of painting appeared in the portrait of a lady from Haerlem, that he painted at half-length, which was begun and finished in one day, though he adorned the figure with rich drapery, and several ornamental jewels. He also painted historical subjects with good success and in that style there is a fine picture of Cimon and Iphigenia, which is accounted by the connoisseurs an excellent performance. In designing academy figures, his expression was so just, and his outline so correct, that he obtained the prize from all his competitors and his works are still bought up at very high prices in the Low Countries. In the collection of the elector Palatine, there is an excellent head of Brouwer, painted by this master and in the Carmelites’ church at Antwerp is preserved a capital picture of the Last Judgment, which is well designed and coloured. Backer died at the age of 42, in 1651, but according to Descarnps, in 1641, at the age of 33.

, a painter, born at Antwerp in 1530, learned the principles of painting from his father, who was a much inferior artist. After his father’s death, he lived in the house of Jacomo Palermo, a dealer in pictures, who avariciously took care to keep him incessantly employed, and sent his paintings to Paris to be disposed of, where they were much admired. He had a clean light manner of pencilling, and a tint of colour that was extremely agreeable. The judicious were very eager to purchase them at high prices, of which, however, the poor artist was not suffered to avail himself; and although his merit was universally allowed, Palermo took care that his name and his circumstances should not be known. He died in this obscure and depressed condition in 1560, only 30 years old.

, a younger son of Samuel Backhouse of Swallowfield in Berkshire, esq. (who died in 1626), was born in that county in 1593, became a commoner of Christ church, Oxford, in 1610, in his seventeenth year, left it without a degree, and attached himself to the study of chemistry and astrology then so much in vogue. He adopted the celebrated Ash mole as his son, and imparted to him those absurd secrets which were to produce wonders. Mr, Backhouse died May 30, 1662, and was buried in Swallowfield church. He published a translation from the French of “The pleasant Fountain of Knowledge,” 1644-, 8vo this was written by John de la Fountainein 1413; “The Complaint of Nature,” and “The Golden Fleece,” a translation from Solomon Trismosin, master to Paracelsus. Mr. Aubrey speaks of this gentleman in his Collection of Hermetic Philosophy, chap. XII.

, a very celebrated Dutch painter, was born in 1631, in the city of Embden his father was secretary of state, and his grandfather had held a post in administration. The first sixteen years of his life were employed in studies suitable to the intentions of his family, which were to breed him up to commerce, and for that purpose he was sent to Amsterdam, where it would appear he first caught an inclination for painting. The earliest instructions he received in this art were from Albert Van Everdingen, but he acquired his principal know r Jedge by frequenting the painting-rooms of different great masters, and observing their various methods of touching and colouring. One of these masters was IJenry Dubbels, whose knowledge of his art was very extensive, and who was very communicative of what he knew. From him Backhuysen obtained more real benefit, than from all the painters of his time, and he had not availed himself long of such an instructor before he became the subject of general admiration, so that even his drawings were sought after, and one of his earliest performances was sold for one hundred florins. It was observed of him, that while he was painting, he would not suffer even his most intimate friends to have access to him, lest his fancy might be disturbed, and the ideas he had formed in his mind might be interrupted. He studied nature attentively in all her forms in gales, calms, storms, clouds, rocks, skies, lights and shadows and he expressed every subject with so sweet a pencil, and such transparence and lustre, as placed him above all the artists of his time in that style, except the younger Vandervelde. It was a frequent custom with Backhuysen whenever he could procure resolute mariners, to go out to sea in a storm, in order to store his mind with grand images, directly copied from nature, of such scenes as would have filled any other head and heart with terror and dismay and the moment he landed, he always impatiently ran to his palette, to secure those incidents of which the traces might, by delay, be obliterated. He perfectly understood ttie management of the chiaro-scuro, and strictly observed the truth of perspective. His works may be easily distinguished by an observant eye, from the freedom and neatness of his touch, from the clearness and natural agitation or quiescence of the water, from a peculiar tint in his clouds and skies, and also from the exact proportions of his ships, and the gracefulness of their positions.

For the burgomasters of Amsterdam he painted a picture, with a multitude of large vessels, and a view of the city at n distance, for which they gave him thirteen hundred guilders, and a considerable present. This picture they afterwards presented to the king of France, who placed it in the Louvre. No painter was ever more honoured by the visits of kings and princes than Backhuysen the king of Prussia was one of the number; and the czar Peter took delight to see him paint, and often endeavoured to draw, after vessels which he had designed. Backhuysen was remarkably assiduous and yet it seems astonishing to consider the number of pictures which he finished, and the exquisite manner in which they are painted. He is said to have had some taste for poetry, and such was his industry that at his leisure hours he taught writing in the families of the principal merchants. He was the greater part of his life much afflicted with the stone and gravel, yet reached a very advanced age, as his death did not happen till 1709. Strutt places him among his engravers, as having published some etchings of the Y, a small arm of the sea near Amsterdam.

, the second daughter of sir Anthony Cooke, was born about the year 1528. She was liberally educated by her father, and having added much acquired knowledge to her natural endowments, she became highly distinguished among the learned personages of the time, and, it is even said, was constituted governess to king Edward VI. She was, however, eminent for piety, virtue, and learning, and well versed in the Greek, Latin, and Italian tongues. She gave an early specimen of her industry, piety, and learning, by translating out of Italian into English twenty-five sermons, written by Barnardine Ochine, concerning “The Predestination and Election of God;” this was published about the year 1550 in 8vo. When the learned bishop Jewel wrote his “Apology for the Church of England,” which had a considerable effect in quieting the clamours of the Roman Catholic writers against the reformed religion, this lady undertook to translate it from the Latin into English, that it might be accessible to the common people, and considering the style of the age, her translation is both faithful and elegant. Mr. Strype informs us that after she had finished the translation she sent the copy to the author, accompanied with an epistle to him in Greek, which he answered in the same language, and was so satisfied with her transjation that he did not alter a single word. The archbishop Parker, to whom she had likewise submitted her work, bestowed the highest praise on it, which he confirmed by a compliment of much elegance. Pie returned it to her printed, Ci knowing,“as he said in his letter to her,” that he had thereby done for the best, and in this point used a reasonable policy that is, to prevent such excuses as her modesty would have made in stay of publishing it.“It was printed in 1564, 4 to, and in 1600, 12mo. That her literary reputation extended beyond her own country is evident from Beza’s dedication to her of his Meditations. In Birch’s” Memoirs of the reign of queen Elizabeth," her name frequently occurs, and he has given some of her letters at full length, and extracts from others, which confirm her character for learning. Her temper in her latter years Appears to have been affected by ill health. At what time she was married to sir Nicholas Bacon cannot be ascertained. It is a more important record, however, that sbe was mother of the illustrious sir Francis Bacon, lord-Verulam. The time of her death, too, has escaped the researches of her biographers. She appears to have been living in 1596, and Ballard conjectures that she died about the beginning of the reign of James I. at Gorhambury, near St. Alban’s, and, according to Dr. Rawley, was buried at St. Michael’s church in that town, but neither monument nor inscription have been discovered.

, Viscount St. Alban'S, and highchancellor of England in the reign of James I. justly styled the glory and ornament of his age and nation, was the son of sir Nicholas Bacon, and Anne, the subject of the preceding article, and was born at York House, in the Strand, on the 22d of January 1560-1. He gave early proofs of a surprizing strength and pregnancy of genius, and when a mere boy, was distinguished by persons of worth and dignity for something far beyond his years. Queen Elizabeth, a very acute discerner of merit, was so charmed with the solidity of his sense and the gravity of fais behaviour, that she would often call him “her young lord keeper,” an office which he eventually reached, although not in her reign. When qualified for academicalstudies, he was sent to the university of Cambridge, where,. June 10, 1573, he was entered of Trinity college, under Dr. John Whitgift, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, Such was his progress under this able tutor, and such the vigour of his intellect, that before he had completed his sixteenth year, he had not only run through the whole circle of the liberal arts, as they were then taught, but began, to perceive the imperfections of the reigning philosophy, and meditated that change of system which has since immortalized his name, and has placed knowledge upon its most firm foundation. Extraordinary as this may -appear, he was heard even at that early age, to object to the Aristotelian system, the only one then in repute, and to say, that his “exceptions against that great philosopher were not founded upon the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way being a philosophy only for disputations and contentions, but barren in the production of works for the benefit of the life of man.”

Such early judgment determined his father to send him to France, that he might improve himself under that able and honest statesman, sir Amias Powlet, then the queen’s ambassador at Paris, and his behaviour while tinder the roof of that minister, was so prudent as to induce sir Amias to intrust him with a commission of importance to the queen, which required both secrecy and dispatch and this he executed so as to gain much credit both to the ambassador and to himself. He afterwards returned to Paris, but made occasional excursions into the provinces, where his attention appears to have been principally directed towards men and manners. He applied also with great assiduity to such studies as he conceived came within his father’s intention, and when he was but nineteen, wrote a very ingenious work, entitled, “A succinct view of the state of Europe,” which, it is plain, he had surveyed not only with the eye of a politician, but also of a philosopher. This work, it is probable, he improved on his return, when he was settled in Gray’s Inn. While thus employed abroad, the death of his father obliged him to return, and apply to some profession for his maintenance, as the money he inherited formed a very narrow provision. Accordingly, on his return, he resolved on the study of the common law, and for that purpose entered himself of the honourable society of Gray’s Inn, where his superior talents rendered him the ornament of the house, and the gentleness and affability of his deportment procured him the affection of all its members. The place itself was so agreeable to him, that he erected there a very elegant structure, which many years after was known by the name of “Lord Bacon’s Lodgings,” which he inhabited occasionally through the greatest part of his life. During the first years of his residence here, he did not confine his studies entirely to law, but indulged his excursive genius in a survey of the whole circle of science. It was here, and at that early age, where he formed, at least, if he did not mature, the plan of that great philosophical work, which has distinguished his name with such superior honour. Whether this first plan, or outlines, have descended to us, is a point upon which his biographers are not agreed. It was probably, however, the “Temporis Partus Masculus,” some part of which is preserved by Gruter in the Latin works of Bacon, which he published. The curious reader may receive much satisfaction on this subject from note D. of the Life of Bacon in the “Biographia Britannica.”

His progress in his professional studies, however, was rterer interrupted, and his practice became considerable. In 1588, he discharged the office of reader at Gray’s Inn, and such was his fame, that the queen honoured him by appointing him her counsel learned in the law extraordinary, but whatever reputation he derived from this appointment, and to a young man of only twenty-eight years of age, it must have been of great importance, it is said he derived from her majesty very little accession of fortune. As a candidate for court-preferment, and a lawyer already distinguished by acknowledged talents, it might be expected that the road to advancement would have been easy, especially if we consider his family interest, as the son of a lordkeeper, and nephew to William lord Burleigh, and first cousin to sir Robert Cecil, principal secretary of state. But it appears that his merit rendered his court-patrons somewhat jealous, and that his interest, clashing with that of the two 'Cecils, and the earls of Leicester and Essex, who formed the two principal parties in queen Elizabeth’s reign, was rather an obstruction to him, as he forsook its natural channel in the Cecils, and attached himself and his brother Anthony to the earl of Essex. Sir Robert Cecil is consequently represented as preventing his attaining any very high appointment, although, that he might not seem to slight so near a relation, he procured him the reversion of the place of register of the court of Star-chamber, which, however, he did not enjoy until the next reign, nearly twenty years after. This made him say, with some pleasantry, that “it was like another man’s ground buttalling upon his house, which might mend his prospect, but did not fill his barn.” It was in gratitude for obtaining for him thb reversion that, in 1592, he published “Certain observations upon a libel entitled A Declaration of the true causes of the great Troubles,” in which he warmly vindicates the lord treasurer particularly, and his own father; and the rest of queen Elizabeth’s ministers occasionally. This is thought to have been his first political production.

His other patron, Robert earl of Essex, proved a warm, steady, and indefatigable friend, and earnestly strove to make him queen’s solicitor, in 1594, although unsuccessfully, from the superior influence of the Cecils. He endeavoured, however, to make him amends for his disappointment out of his own fortune. This, it might be supposed, demanded on the part of Mr. Bacon, a high sense of obligation, and. such he probably felt at the time but it is much to be lamented, that he afterwards sullied his character by taking a most forward and active part in bringing that unfortunate nobleman to the block for he not only appeared against him as a lawyer for the crown, but after his death, endeavoured to perpetuate the shame of it, by drawing a declaration of the treasons of the earl of Essex, which was calculated to justify the government in a very unpopular measure, and to turn the public censure from those who had ruined the earl of Essex, and had never done Mr. Bacon any good. It is but fair, however, that we should give the outline of the apology which he found it necessary to make for his conduct. It amounts to this, that he had given the earl good advice, which he did not follow that upon this a coldness ensued, which kept them at a greater distance than formerly that, however, he continued to give his advice to the earl, and laboured all he could to serve him with the queen that in respect to his last unfortunate act, which was, in truth, no better than an act of madness, he had no knowledge or notice whatever that he did no more than he was in duty bound to do for the service of the queen, in the way of his profession and that the declaration was put upon him altered, after he had drawn it, both by Uie ministers and the queen herself. Such an apology, however, did not satisfy the public at that time, and the utmost investigation of the affair since has only tended to soften some parts of his conduct, without amounting to a complete justification.

Enemies he certainly had, whether from this cause, or from a jealousy of his high talents; and among other accusations, they represented him as a man, who, by applying too much of his time to other branches of knowledge, could not but neglect that of his profession but this appears to have been a foolish calumny. Most of his works on law were written, although not published, in this reign. About the year 1596, he finished his “Maxims of the Law.” As these are now published, they make only the first part of what are styled “The Elements of the Common Law of England.” The second treatise was entitled “The Use of the Law for preservation of our persons, goods, and good name, according to the laws and customs of this land,” a work of great value to students. His “Maxims of Law” he dedicated to queen Elizabeth, but, for whatever reason, the work was not published in his lifetime. The next year he published a work of another kind, entitled “Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral.” This work is well known, and has been often reprinted. The author appears to have had a high opinion of its utility and of the excellent morality and wisdom it inculcates there probably never has been but one opinion. Some of these essays had been handed about in manuscript, which he assigns as the reason why he collected and published them in a correct form. About the close of the succeeding year, 1598, he composed his “History of the Aliena tion Office,” which was not published till many years after his decease, indeed not until the publication of his works in 1740, when it was copied from a ms. in the Inner Temple library. It is needless to mention some smaller instances of his abilities in the law, which, nevertheless, were received by the learned society of which he was a member, with all possible marks of veneration and esteem, and which they have preserved with the reverence due to so eminent an ornament of their house. As a farther proof of their respect, they chose him double reader in the year 1600, which office he discharged with his usual ability. He distinguished himself likewise, during the latter part of the queen’s reign, in the house of commons, where he spoke often, and with so much impartiality as to give occasional umbrage to the ministers. To the queen, however, he preserved a steady loyalty, and after her decease, composed a memorial of the happiness of her reign, which did equal honour to her administration, and to the capacity of its author. He transmitted a copy of this to Thuanus, who made use of it in his history, but Mr. Bacon contented himself with enjoining that it should be printed after his’ decease. It is a work of much elegance and ability.

On the accession of king James I. Mr. Bacon appears to have paid court to him, by the intervention of some of his English and some of his Scotch friends, and by drawing up the form of a proclamation, which, though it was not used, was considered as an instance of his duty and attachment. Accordingly, on July 23, 1603, he was introduced to the king at Whitehall, and received the honour of knighthood. He was also continued in the same office he held under the queen, but a representation respecting the grievous exactions of purveyors, which the house of commons employed him to draw up, attracted the king’s more particular attention, and on Aug. 25, 1604, his majesty constituted him, by patent, one of his counsel learned in the law, with a fee of forty pounds a year, which is said to have been the first act of royal power of that nature. He granted him the same day, by another patent, a pension of sixty pounds a year, for special services received from his brother Anthony Bacon and himself. His farther promotion, however, was still retarded by his old antagonist, sir Robert Cecil, now created earl of Salisbury, and by sir Edward Coke, the attorney-general, who affected to undervalue his talents, and who certainly had reason to fear his reputation. To these, however, he contrived to carry himself with decent respect, although not without occasional expostulations with both,

In the mean time he gave evidence of the steady prosecution of his studies by publishing, in 1605, the first specimen of his great work, in his book “Of the Advancement of Learning,” a performance of much value even in its detached state. He continued, however, his diligence in parliament, and among other topics, endeavoured to second the views the king had entertained of an union between England and Scotland but his efforts for the crown were more successful in Westminster-hall than in that assembly. About this time he married Alice, daughter of Benedict Barnham, esq. alderman of London, a lady who brought him an ample fortune, but by whom he never had any children. In 1607, he succeeded in his application for the solicitorship, on a vacancy, and with that his practice encreased most extensively, there being few causes of importance in which he was not concerned. He assured the king, before he obtained this employment, that it would give him such an increase of capacity, though not of zeal, to serve his majesty, that what he had done in times past should seem as nothing, in comparison with the services he should render for the future and in this respect he is said to have kept his word, for in the session of parliament hold in the year in which he was made solicitor, he ran through a great variety of business, and that of a nature which required a man not only of great abilities but of great policy, and of equal reputation. He was, in the first place, employed by the house of commons to represent to the king the grievances under which the nation laboured and though the paper relating to them was couched in terms not very agreeable to the king’s temper, sir Francis, by his accompanying address, so abated their harshness as to perform this difficult commission with universal applause. He was likewise employed by the house at a conference with the lords, to persuade them to join in an application to the crown, for the taking away the ancient tenures, and allowing a certain and competent revenue in lieu of them and in his speech on this occasion, sir Francis Bacon set the affair in so clear a light, as excited that spirit, which at length procured the dissolution of the court of Wards, a point of the highest consequence to the Jiberties of this kingdom. He likewise satisfied the house at a time when they were much out of temper at the manner in which the king’s messages were conveyed to them and procured their acquiescence in the supplies by a well-timed speech, which must have convinced the king of what importance his services were likely to prove. Amidst all these political and professional engagements, he found leisure to digest the plan of the second part of his great work, which he transmitted to some judicious friends for their opinion. This piece was entitled “Cogitata et Visa,” and contained the ground-work or plan of his “Novum Organum,” so essential a part of his “Instauration,” that it sometimes bears that title. Bishop Andrews and sir Thomas Bodley w r ere two of the persons whose advice he solicited on this occasion, and their answers are printed in his works, where we have likewise a small discourse in English, under the Latin title of “Filum Labyrinthi,” which was the original draught of the “Cogitata et Visa.” While availing himself of the opinions of his learned contemporaries, he published in 1610, his celebrated treatise “Of the Wisdom of the Ancients,” a work which received and has ever retained the justest applause. It is not easy to say which is most conspicuous in this, his diligence in procuring the materials, or his judgment in disposing of them.

At this time his favour with the king, and his general popularity were very high, yet we do not find that he availed himself much of either, in the advancement of his personal fortune, excepting that in 1611 he procured the office of judge of the marshal’s court, jointly with sir Thomas Vavasor, then knight- marshal. In this character he presided, though for a very short time, in the court newly erected, under the title of the Palace-court for the verge of the king’s house, in which station he has left us a very learned and methodical charge to the jury there upon a commission of oyer and terminer, printed in his works. If his biographers may be credited, he enjoyed at this time an income of nearly five thousand pounds a-year, arising partly from his personal estates, and partly from his official emoluments; and although he was liberal and even profuse in his mode of living, yet as his public stations required no great display of magnificence, his circumstances must have been such as to remove him from the ambition of availing himself of the many opportunities of aggrandizement which his favour with the king afforded. It was not till 1613, that he succeeded to the office of attorneygeneral, of which he had had a promise, when sir Henry Hobart was made chief justice of the common-pleas. In this office he was, contrary to the usual practice, and in consideration of his eminent services, allowed to take his seat in the house of commons. He appears indeed to have received favours of distinction on all occasions, that were before unknown. Even in the court of star-chamber, when a solemn decree was made against duelling, his speech, which gave occasion to the decree, was, contrary to custom, printed with it.

Such, indeed, was the weight of his character, that he stood in no need of support from the king’s ministers the earl of Salisbury was now dead, and it does not appear that he had any dependance on the earl of Somerset, the reigning favourite, but kept at a distance from him when he was in his highest power. Matters, however, were so mismanaged by Somerset, that the attorney-general had much difficulty and less success in preserving the king’s interest in the house of commons, where an opposition arose to his majesty’s measures so violent, that the parliament was dissolved, and not called again for a considerable time. Voluntary subscriptions were set on foot to supply the wants of government; and this being in some instances; resisted, the attorney-general had to prosecute a Mr. Oliver St. John, who was among the most refractory. But these are circumstances which properly belong to the history of this reign.

In the mean time, Somerset was falling in the king’s estimation, and his place was supplied by Mr. George Villiers, afterwards the duke of Buckingham. The rise of this favourite was rapid and surprizing and sir Francis Bacon is said to have conceived a good opinion of him, became his friend, and certainly gave him very salutary advice. His promotion was followed % by the trial of the earl and countess of Somerset, for being accessary to the murder of sir Thomas Overbury. In this affair, sir Francis appears to have acted an impartial part in the discharge of his duty as attorney-general. The king who appeared deeply interested in bringing these offenders to justice, was as eager afterwards to grant them a pardon but sir Francis interfered in neither case farther than the duties of his office required.

He became now of so much importance in the state, that it was necessary he should be sworn of the privycouncil, which, like his other distinguishing honours, had not been usual for a man in his station. It was accomplished, however, by the interposition of his friend, sir George Villiers, a circumstance which seems to imply that the king’s consent only was wanting but why so useful a servant as sir Francis should be in any measure dependant on this young favourite for that, is not very clearly explained. Certain it is that his majesty’s chief dependance was on his integrity and abilities, and he experienced the advantage of both, in the affair of a contest between the two courts of chancery and king’s bench, as to the point of jurisdiction. Sir Francis appears to have given the opinion upon which the king acted when he pronounced a kind of judgment in the court of star-chamber, in favour of the lord-chancellor Egerton, and against his antagonist sir Edward Coke.

Sir Francis held the office of attorney-general for three years, during which he behaved himself with such prudence and moderation, and went through so many difficult and perplexed affairs, with such evenness and integrity, that it does not appear his conduct was ever called in question, nor has malice itself dared to utter any thing to his reproach. On the 7th of March, 1616-17, on the resignation of the lord-chancellor, he was promoted to that high office, which, indeed, he had solicited on a former occasion, when there was a prospect of a vacancy. It is said that when his majesty delivered the seals to him, he gave him three cautions, first, that he should not seal any thing but after mature deliberation secondly, that he should give righteous judgments between parties and lastly, that he should not extend the royal prerogative too far. These precepts he made the ground- work of a long and learned speech which he delivered in court, on the 7th of May following, the day on which he took possession of his high office. He now hegan to experience the truth of the observation that the highest seats are the most exposed for within a little time after the king’s setting out for Scotland, which took place a few days after his appointment to the seals, the Spanish match was, by direction of his majesty, brought upon the carpet, and cost sir Francis very great trouble. The conduct of the favourite Buckingham also occasioned him much perplexity, although the cause was of no more importance than a projected marriage between sir John Villiers, brother to the favourite, and a daughter of sir Edward Coke, which the lord keeper opposed, and of which opposition Buckingham himself afterwards entertained a more favourable opinion.

In the mean time the chancellor continued to supreintend the king’s affairs in general, and particularly the concerns of the civil list. There are many of his letters extant, both to the king and to Buckingham, upon this subject, which demonstrate an independence of mind, and an intrepidity in the discharge of his duty, very remote from the servile temper of which his enemies have accused him. In the beginning of January 1618, he had the title given him of lord high chancellor of England and in July of the same year, he was created baron of Verulam in the county of Hertford. This new honour excited his lordship to new services, and it appears from his own writings, that he was very attentive to every thing that might conduce, either to the immediate benefit of the king, or to the general good of his subjects. Some of his particulartransactions are detailed in the history of the times, and in his life in the Biographia but it would swell this article beyond all useful bounds were we to enter upon these. With regard to his more personal history, it may, however, be necessary to subjoin that while high chancellor, he procured from the king the farm of the alienation-office, which was of considerable benefit, and proved a great part of his subsistence, after he lost his office. He likewise procured York-house for his residence, for which he seems to have had an affection, as being the place of his birth, and where his father had lived all the time he possessed the high office of lord keeper of the great seal.

With his colleagues in administration, or in the law departments, he appears to have endeavoured to live upon good terms. Buckingham he contrived to keep in apparent humour, although he frequently refused to put the seal to what he thought improper grants and he even agreed better with sir Edward Coke than was expected, always representing that judge to the king in the most favourable light. About this time, however, an attempt was made to the prejudice of the chancellor, which might have given him some warning of his fall. One Wrenbam, against whom he had made a decree, surmising he had wrong done him, the general case with clients who lose their cause, presented a libellous petition to the king against him, the suggestions of which were thoroughly examined, and it clearly appeared that the chancellor had acted as became him, and that he had in truth been very much injured by this Wrenham the suggestions, however, appear to have produced those effects on some minds which afterwards were displayed more conspicuously.

In the midst of these important occupations, he was so far from neglecting his philosophical studies, that in the month of October 1620, he sent to the king his great work, the “Novum Organum,” the design of which was, to execute the second part of the “Instauration,” by advancing a more perfect method of using the rational faculty than men were before acquainted with, in order to raise and improve the understanding, as far as its present imperfect state admits, and enable it to conquer and interpret the difficulties and obscurities of nature. This work his majesty received as graciously as he/could wish, and wrote him a letter upon it, which certainly does honour to both their memories. He received also the compliments of many learned men on the same subject, and had every reason to be satisfied with the general reception of a work, which cost him so much time and pains. Such is said to have been his anxiety for its perfection, that he revised and altered twelve copies before he brought it to the state in which it was published.

The end of his political life, however, was now approaching, and was precipitated by means in which he had a considerable share, by advising his majesty to call a parliament, and grant redress of public abuses. In the course of investigating these, on the loth of March 1620-1, the committee appointed to inquire into the abuses in the courts of justice, reported that two charges of corruption had been brought against the lord chancellor; a farther inquiry was ordered by the house of commons, which produced stronger circumstances, and the complaint was sent up to the house of lords. When it came to be debated there, Buckingham presented a letter from the lord chancellor, who was then sick, in which he desired four things of their lordships first, that they would maintain him in their good opinion till his cause was heard secondly, that they would give him a convenient time, as well in regard of his ill state of health, as of the importance of the charge, to make his defence; thirdly, that they would allow him to except against the credit of the witnesses against him, to cross-examine them, and to produce evidence in his own defence and fourthly, that in case there came any more petitions of the like nature, that their lordships would not take any prejudice at their number, considering they were against a judge that made two thousand orders, and decrees in a year. Their lordships returned a respectful answer to this letter but within a few days, their own committee reported above twenty instances, in which he had taken bribes to the amount of several thousands of pounds. Of all this, the proof was so clear, as to determine the chancellor to relinquish his intended defence, and to throw himself upon the mercy of the house. This not being explicit, he sent a second full and particular confession and submission to the house, in which he acknowledged most, but extenuated some, of the many instances of corruption with which he had been charged, and once more threw himself entirely on the mercy of his peers. The lords having heard this paper read, a committee of lords were sent to him, who told him that the lords do conceive it to be an ingenuous and full confession, and demanded of him, whether it be his own hand that is subscribed to the same and whether he will stand to it or not To which the lord chancellor answered, “My lords, it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed.”

In consequence of these proceedings, his lordship delivered up the great seal to his majesty, and the house of peers adjudged, that lord viscdunt St. Albans, lord chancellor of England, shall undergo fine and ransom of fortythousand pounds, that he shall be imprisoned in the Tower during the king’s pleasure, that he shall for ever be incapable of any office or employment in the state or commonwealth, and that he shall never sit in parliament, or come within the verge of the court. After a short confinement in the Tower, however, he was discharged, and in some measure regained his favour with the king, who, on the prorogation of parliament, was pleased to consult him, as to the proper methods of reforming the courts of justice, and taking away other grievances which that parliament had inquired into and his lordship accordingly drew up a memorial, which is extant in his works. Other marks of favour and indulgence were shewn him, which, amidst the anguish of a blasted character, so far appeased his troubled mind, that he resumed his studies with his accustomed vigour. In the spring of the succeeding year, 1622, he published his history of, Henry VII. which has not added so much to his reputation as his other works. When the new parliament was called, in which the house of commons shewed great zeal for his majesty’s service, he composed “Considerations of a war with Spain,” and likewise “Heads of a Speech” for his friend sir Edward Sackville, upon the same subject and these services were so well received, that upon an application to the king for a full pardon, he easily obtained it. In the warrant directed for this purpose to the attorney-general, his majesty took notice of his lordship’s having already satisfied justice by his sufferings, and. that himself being always inclined to temper justice with mercy, and likewise calling to remembrance his former good services, and how well and profitably he had spent his time since his troubles, he was graciously pleased to remove from him that blot of ignominy which yet remained upon him, of incapacity and disablement, and to remit to him all penalties whatsoever, inflicted by that sentence.

In consequence of this pardon, his lordship was summoned to the second parliament in the succeeding reign of Charles I. but his infirmities did not allow him to take his seat. He foresaw that his end was drawing near, although he escaped the great plague, in the spring of 1625. Having sufficiently established the fame of his learning and abilities, by his writings published by himself, he committed, by his will, several of his Latin and philosophical compositions, to the care of sir William Bos well, his majesty’s agent in Holland, where they were afterwards published by Gruter. His orations and letters he commended to sir Humphrey May, chancellor of the Duchy, and the bishop of Lincoln (Williams), who succeeded him as lord keeper, and acknowledged the honour of that trust, which letters he enjoined to be preserved, but not to be divulged, as touching too much on persons and matters of state. By this judicious care of his, most of his papers were preserved, and the greatest part of them at different times have been printed and published. The severe winter which followed the infectious summer of 1625, brought him very low; but the spring reviving his spirits, he made a little excursion into the country, in order to try some experiments in natural philosophy; in which journey he was taken so ill, that he was obliged to stop at the earl of Arundel’s house at Highgate, about a week, and there he expired, April y, 1626, and was privately buried in the chapel of St. Michael’s church, within the precincts of Old Verulam where a monument was erected to his memory by sir Thomas Meautys, his faithful friend and indefatigable servant in all his troubles.

The political character of lord Bacon is sufficiently determined by those events in his life, about which there can now be no dispute. However we may lament the fall of such a man, it appears too plain that it was owing entirely to his own misconduct, and neither to the intrigues of his enemies, or the temper of the times. He remains an awful example of the brightest character upon record, sullied by the vices of ambition and ostentation; for the latter betrayed him into expences which he was glad to defray without consideration of the means, nor is it much palliation of his great offence, that he was neither covetous nor avaricious.

If, however, we contemplate his personal character and his mental powers, he must appear to be one of the greatest and wisest men that ever contributed to human knowledge. The only thing, says Brucker, to be regretted in the writings of Bacon is, that he has increased the difficulties necessarily attending his original and profound researches, by too freely making use of new terms, and by loading his arrangement with an excessive multiplicity and minuteness of divisions. But an attentive and accurate reader, already not unacquainted with philosophical subjects, will meet with no insuperable difficulties in studying his works, and, if he be not a wonderful proficient in science, will reap much benefit as well as pleasure from the perusal. In fine, adds this judicious writer, lord Bacon, by the universal consent of the learned world, is to be ranked in the first class of modern philosophers. He unquestionably belonged to that superior order of men, who, by enlarging the boundaries of human knowledge, have been benefactors to mankind and he may not improperly be styled, on account of the new track of science which he employed, the Columbus of the philosophical world.

His works, collected into five vols. 4to. were beautifully and accurately printed by Bowyer and Strahan, in 1765, and have been lately reprinted in 8vo. A life of lord Bacon is still a desideratum in English literature that in the Biographia Britannica, from which the present article is taken, contains an usefurcollection of facts and references to authorities, but is ill digested, and forms no regular plan.

, an eminent English sculptor, descended of an ancient family in Somersetshire, was the son of Thomas Bacon, a cloth-worker in South wark, and born Nov. 24, 1740. At the age of fourteen, he was bound apprentice to Mr. Crispe of Bow church-yard, where he was employed in painting on porcelain, and forming the models of shepherds, shepherdesses, and other ornamental pieces for his master’s china manufactory at Lambeth, and such was his skill and industry in this humble employment, that he was at this early age enabled to gratify his filial piety, by supporting his parents from the produce of his labours, although at the expence of 'those enjoyments which children of less affection and thought cannot easily resign. While employed at this manufactory, he had an opportunity of seeing the models of different sculptors which were sent there to be burnt, and from them he improved his own skill in so high a degree, that at no distant period he became a candidate for public premiums, and it appears from the books published annually by the Society for the encouragement of the arts, that, between the years 1763 and 1766 inclusive, the first premiums in those classes, for which he contended, were no less than nine times adjudged to him. The first of these attempts was made in the year 1758, in a small figure of Peace, after the manner of the antique. During his apprenticeship also, he formed a design of making statues in artificial stone, which he afterwards so perfected as to recover the manufactory at Lambeth, now carried on by Mrs. Coade, and which before Mr. Bacon undertook the management of it, had fallen into very low circumstances.

About the year 1763, he first attempted working in marble, and having never seen that operation performed, he was led to invent an instrument for transferring the form of the model to the marble (technically called, getting out the points), which instrument, from its superior effect, has since been adopted by many other sculptors in England and France. His first regular instructions, however, in his favourite pursuit, were received at the lloyal Academy in 1768, the year of its institution, and such were their effect on a mind already so well prepared by nature, that the first gold medal for sculpture given by the academy, was decreed to him and two years after, he was elected an associate. His fame was at this time well known by his statue of Mars, which induced the late archbishop of York, Dr. Markham, to employ him to execute a bust of his Majesty for the hall of Christ Church college, Oxford. His majesty not only condescended to sit to him upon this occasion, but honoured him with his patronage, and ordered another bust, intended as a present to the university of Got tin gen. He was -soon after employed by the dean and scholars of Christ Church to form several busts for them, particularly those of general Guise, the bishop of Durham, and the primate of Ireland.

In 1773, he presented to the Society forthe encouragement of arts, two statues in plaster, which by a vote of that society, were directed to be placed in their great room, and he received on the same occasion their gold medal. His first work in sculpture is in Christ Church college, already mentioned the first figures he executed in marble, are at the duke of Richmond’s at Goodwood and his first monument was that of Mrs. Withers, in St. Mary’s, Worcester. In 1777, he was employed to prepare a model of a monument to be erected in Guy’s hospital, South wark, to the memory of the founder. It was this work that chiefly recommended him to the execution of lord Chatham’s monument in Guildhall. His other works, about this period, were the monument of Mrs. Draper; a marble statue of Mars, for lord Yarborough two groupes for the top of Somerset-house the monument of lord Halifax in Westminster abbey the statue of judge Blackstone for All Souls college, Oxford, and that of Henry VI. for the Anti-chapel at Eton. It is not our intention, however, nor would our limits permit, to enumerate all the works executed by this artist, within twenty years after he attained his just and high fame. There are few of our cathedrals or puhlic edifices without some specimen of his skill, but it would be unpardonable to omit one of his grandest efforts, the monument of lord Chatham, in Westminster abbey, which was begun in 1778, and finished in 1783. It is alone a proof of the excellence he had attained, without the aid of foreign travel and observation and how various that excellence was, may be further proved from the bronze gfoupe in the square in Somersetplace the monuments of lady Miller at Bath of lord Rodney at Jamaica of lord Heathfield at Buckland of the earl and countess of Effingham at Jamaica of Howard and Johnson in St. Paul’s, &c. c.

In almost the vigour of life, and when his fame was at its height, this artist was suddenly attacked with an inflammation in his bowels, so violent and remediless, as to occasion his death, Aug. 7, 1799, in the 59th year of his age. He left two sons and three daughters by his first wife, and three sons by his last. His second son, John, became the inheritor of a considerable part of his property, and has already fully proved himself the legitimate successor to his talents.

Mr. Bacon’s private characfer is entitled to much praise. He vyas a man of unfeigned piety and extensive benevolence. Prosperity had not corrupted him, although it appeared to superficial observers that he was cautious in matters of expence, which they were apt to impute to motives which never entered into his mind. The want of education, he supplied by useful reading, and without the more ostensible attainments of a scholar, his conversation as far as it regarded common life and common topics, had none of those deficiencies which academical education is supposed to supply. In his temper, the irritability of the artist was corrected by much meekness and forbearance, and he had that noble candour which never denies just praise to a rival or contemporary. With respect to his attainments in his profession, they might be said to be all his own. Having arrived at the highest rank of English artists in sculpture, he lias amply proved that foreign travel confers a merit which is rather useful than necessarv a distinction which will not be misunderstood by those who know to what caprices the success of modern artists is often indebted.

, knight of the bath, and an excellent painter, was one of the sons of the lord-keeper sir Nicholas Bacon, and half-brother to the viscount St. Alban’s. He travelled into Italy, and studied painting there; but his manner and colouring approach nearer to the style of the Flemish school. Mr. Walpole observes, that at Culford, where he lived, are preserved some of his works and at Gorhambury, his father’s seat, is a large picture in oil by him, of a cook maid with dead fowls, admirably painted, with great nature, neatness, and lustre of colouring. In the same house is a whole length of him by himself, drawing on a paper his sword and pallet hung up, and a half length of his mother by him. At Redgrave-hall, in Suffolk, were two more pieces by the same hand, which afterwards passed into the possession of Mr. Rowland Holt the one, Ceres with fruit and flowers; the other, Hercules and the Hydra. In Tradescant’s museum was a small landscape, painted and given to him by sir Nathaniel Bacon. In the chancel of Culford, in Suffolk, are a monument and bust of him, with his pallet and pencils. Another monument was erected to his memory at Stiffkey in Norfolk, the inscription upon which is published by Mr. Masters. The same writer informs us, that sir Nathaniel was famed for painting plants, and well skilled in their virtues. He married first, Anne, the daughter of sir Thomas Greshant, and secondly, Dorothy, daughter of sir Arthur Hopton. By the former he had three daughters, the eldest of whom married John Townsend of llainham, ancestor of the present marquis Townsend. The monument above-mentioned was erected by himself in 1615, the 69th year of his age, but has not the date of his death.

, lord keeper of the great seal in the reign of queen Elizabeth, descended from an ancient and honourable family in Suffolk. His rather was Robert Bacon of Drinkstxm in that county, esq. and his mother was Isabel, the daughter of John Gage of Pakenhain in the said county, esq. Nicholas, their second son, was born in 1510, at Chislehurst in Kent. After having received the first rudiments of learning, probably at home, or in the neighbourhood, he was sent when very young to Corpus Christi college in Cambridge, where having improved in all branches of useful knowledge, he went to France, in order to give the last polish to his education. On his return he settled in Gray VInn, and applied himself with such assiduity to the study of the law, that on the dissolution of the monastery of St. Edmund’s-Bury in Suffolk, he had a grant from king Henry VIII. in the thirty-­sixth year of his reign, of the manors of Redgrave, Botesdale, and Gillingham, with the park of Redgrave, and six acres of land in Worthanf, as also the tithes of Redgrave to hold in capite by knight’s service, a proof of the estimation in which he was held by his majesty. In the thirtyeighth of the same king, he was promoted to the office of attorney in the court of wards, a place both of honour and profit, and his patent was renewed in the first year of Edward VI. and in 1552, which was the last year of his reign, Mr. Bacon was elected treasurer of Gray’s-Inn. His great moderation and consummate prudence, preserved him through the dangerous reign of queen Mary. In the very dawn of that of Elizabeth he was knighted, and the great seal of England being taken from Nicholas Heath, archbishop of York, was delivered to sir Nicholas Bacon, on the 22d of December 1558, with the title of lord keeper. He was also of the privy council to her majesty, who had much regard to his advice. The parliament met Jan. 23, but was prorogued on account of the queen’s indisposition to the 25th, when the lord keeper opened the session with a most eloquent and solid speech. Some of the queen’s counsellors thought it necessary that the attainder of the queen’s mother should be taken off; but the lord keeper thought the crown purged all defects, and in compliance with his advice, two laws were made, one for recognizing the queen’s title, the other for restoring her in blood as heir to her mother. The principal business of this session was the settlement of religion, in which no man had a greater share than the keeper, and he acted with such prudence as never to incur the hatred of any party. On this account he was, together with the archbishop of York, appointed moderator in a dispute between eight Protestant divines, and eight Popish bishops and the latter behaving very unfairly in the opinion of both the moderators, and desiring, to avoid a fair disputation, to go away, the lord keeper put that question to each of them, and when all except one insisted on going, his lordship dismissed them with this memorandum, “For that ye would not that we should hear you, perhaps you may shortly hear of us” and accordingly for this contempt, the bishops of Winchester and Lincoln were committed to the tower, and the rest were bound to appear before the council, and not to quit the cities of London and Westminster without leave. The whole business of the session, than which there was none of greater importance during that reign, was chiefly managed by his lordship, according to his wise maxim, “Let us stay a little, that we may have done the sooner.” From this time he stood as high in the favour of the queen as any of her ministers, and maintained a cordial interest with other great men, particularly with those eminent persons, who had married into the same family with himself, viz. Cecil, Hobby, Rowlet, and Killigrew. By their assistance he preserved his credit at court, though he sometimes differed in opinion from the mighty favourite Leicester, who yet once bad fair his ruin, when certain intrigues were carried on respecting the succession. Some statesmen, and particularly the earl of Leicester, pretended to favour the title of the queen of Scots, but others were more inclined to the house of Suffolk. The queen sometimes affected a neutrality, and sometimes shewed a tenderness for the title of the Scottish queen. In 1564, when these disputes were at the height, Mr. John Hales, clerk of the Hanaper, published a treatise which seems to have been written a considerable time before, in favour of the Suffolk line, and against the title of the queen of Scots. This book was complained of by the bishop of Ross, ambassador from the queen of Scots, and Ross being warmly supported by the earl of Leicester, Hales was committed to prison, and so strict an inquiry made after all who had expressed any favour for this piece, that at last the lord-keeper came to be suspected, which drew upon him the queen’s displeasure, and he was forbidden the court, removed from his seat at council, and prohibited from meddling with any affairs but those of the chancery nay, Camden says he was confined . At last, however, Cecil, who is suspected to have had some share in the above treatise, with much difficulty restored him to the queen’s good opinion, as appears by her setting him at the head of that commission, granted in the year 1568, for hearing the difference between the queen of Scots, and her rebellious subjects; and in 1571, we find him again acting in the like capacity, though very little was done before the commissioners at either time, which was what queen Elizabeth chiefly desired, and the covering her inclination with a decent appearance of justice, was perhaps not a little owing to the address of the lord-keeper. Afterwards he continued at the head of her majesty’s councils, and had a great hand in preventing, by his moderation, some violent measures afterwards proposed. The share, however, that he had in the business of the duke of Norfolk, and his great care for promoting the Protestant religion, created him many bitter enemies among the Papists both at home and abroad, who though they were able to do him no great hurt, yet published some libels, particularly “A Detection of certain practices, &c.” printed in Scotland, about 1570, and “A treatise of Treason,” both which gave him considerable uneasiness, although the queen expressed her opinion, by a proclamation, ordering them to be burnt. As a statesman, he was remarkable for a clear head, and acute understanding; and while it was thought of some other great men that they seemed wiser than they were, yet the common voice of the nation pronounced, that sir Nicholas Bacon was wiser than he seemed. His great skill lay in balancing factions, and it is thought he taught the queen that secret, the more necessary to her because the last of her family, and consequently without many of the usual supports of princes. In the chancery he distinguished himself by a very moderate use of power, and the respect he shewed to the common law. At his own request, an act of parliament was made, to settle and establish the power of a lord -keeper, though he might probably have taken away all need of this, by procuring the title of lord chancellor: but according to his motto, which was Mediocra firma, he he was content to be safe, and did not desire to be great*. In that court, and in the star-chamber, he made use, on proper occasions, of set speeches, in which he was peculiarly happy, and gained the reputation of a witty and a weighty speaker. His great parts and great preferment were far from raising him in his own opinion, as appears from the modest answer he gave* queen Elizabeth, when she told him his house at Redgrave was too little for him, “Not so, madam,” returned he, “but your majesty has made me too great for my house.” Yet to shew his respect for her majesty’s judgment, he afterwards added wings to this house. His modesty in this respect was so much the greater, since he had a great passion for building, and a very fine taste, as appeared by his house and gardens at Gorhambury near St. Alban’s, now the seat of lord viscount Grimston. Towards the latter end of his life, he became very corpulent, which made queen Elizabeth say merrily, that “sir Nicholas’s soul lodged well. To himself, however, his bulk was very inconvenient after walking from Westminster-hall to the star-chamber, which was but a very little way, he was usually so much out of breath, that the lawyers forbore speaking at the bar till he recocovered himself, and gave them notice by knocking” with his staff. After having held the great seal more than twenty years, this able statesman and faithful counsellor was suddenly removed from this life, as Mallett informs us, by the following accident “He was under the hands of his barber, and the weather being sultry, had ordered a window before him to be thrown open. As he was become very corpulent, he presently fell asleep, in the cur­* After he had been some monthsact of parliament, which declares, in office, as keeper of the great seal,” That the common law always was, he began to doubt to what degree his that the keeper of the great seal always authority extended, which seems to had, as of right belonging to his office, have been owing to the general terms the same authority, jurisdiction, excused upon the delivery of the great cution of laws, and all other customs, Heal, of which we have various in- as the lord chancellor of England lawstances in Rymer’s Foedera. Upon fully used.“What the true reason this, he first applied himself to the was that made his lordship so uneasy, queen, from whom he procured a pa- is not perhaps known to posterity. tent, bearing date at Westminster, the But sir Henry Spelman has observed, 14th of April, in the first year of her that for the benefit of that wise counreign, whereby she declares him te seller sir Nicholas Bacon, the authobare as full powers as if he were rity of the keeper of the great seal hancellor of England, and ratifies all was by this law declared to be in all that he had already done. This, how- respects the same with that of th ever, did not fully satisfy him but chancellor, four years afterwards he procured an rent of fresh air that was blowing in upon him, and awaked after some time distempered all over. c Why,‘ said he to the servant, < did you suffer me to sleep thus exposed’ The fellow replied, ‘ That he durst not presume to disturb him.’ * Then,‘ said the lord keeper, * by your civility I lose my life,’ and so removed into his bed-chamber, where he died a few days after.” But this story seems doubtful, for all writers agree, that sir Nicholas Bacon died Feb. 20, 1579, when the weather could not be very sultry. On the 9th of March following he was buried with great solemnity, under a sumptuous monument erected by himself in St. Paul’s church, with an inscription written by the celebrated Buchanan. Camden’s character of him is just and plain “Vir praepinguis, ingenio acerrimo, singulari prudentia, summa eloquentia, tenaci memoria, et sacris conciliis alterum columen” i. e. A man of a gross body, but most quick wit, singular prudence, supreme eloquence, happy memory, and for judgment the other pillar of the state. His son’s pharacter of him is more striking. He was “a plain man, direct and constant, without all finesse and doubleness and one that was of a mind that a man, in his private proceedings and estate, and in the proceedings of state, should rest upon the soundness and strength of his own courses, and not upon practice to circumvent others, according to the sentence of Solomon, * Vir prudens advertit ad gressus suos stultus autem divertit ad dolos’ insomuch that the bishop of Ross, a subtle and observing man, said of him, that he could fasten no words upon him, and that it was impossible to come within him, because he offered no play; and the queen mother of France, a very politic princess, said of him, that he should have been of the council of Spain, because he despised the occurrents, and rested upon the first plot.” Nor is Puttenham’s short account to be overlooked “I have come to the lord keeper, and found him sitting in his gallery alone, with the works of Quintilian before him. Indeed he was a most eloquent man, of rare wisdom and learning, as ever I knew England to breed, and one that joyed as much in learned men and 0'.;d wits, from whose lippes Ihave seen to proceed more i;rave and natural eloquence than from all the orators of Oxford and Cambridge.”

He was not happier in his fortune than in his family. His first wife was Jane, daughter of William Fernley, of Meting in the county of Suffolk, esrj. by whom he had issue three sons and three daughters. The sons were, 1. Sir Nicholas. 2. Nathaniel Bacon, of whom we have just given some account. 3. Edward Bacon, of Shrubland-hall in Suffolk, esq. in right of his wife Helen, daughter and heir of Thomas Littel of the same place, esq. and of Bray, in the county of Berks, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter and coheir to sir Robert Litton, of Knebworth in the county of Hertford, knt. from whom is lineally descended Nicholas Bacon of Shrubland-hall, esq. and from younger sons of the said Edward are the Bacons of Ipswich in Suffolk, and Earlham in Norfolk, descended. The daughters were, 1. Anne, already noticed. 2. Jane, married first to sir Francis Windham, knt. one of the justices of the common pleas;‘ second, to sir Robert Mansfield, knt. And 3. Elizabeth, married first to sir Robert d’Oyly of Chislehampton in Oxfordshire, knt. secondly, to sir Henry Nevil, knt and thirdly, to sir William Periam, knt. lord chief baron of the exchequer. After her decease he married Anne, daughter of sir Anthony Cooke, of Giddy-hall in the county of Essex, knt. by whom he had two sons, Anthony and Francis, the illustrious lord Bacon. Of Anthony there is a long, but imperfect and not very interesting account, in the “Biographia Britannica.”

Sir Nicholas ranks among the liberal benefactors to the university of Cambridge, and particularly to Corpus college, in which he was educated. He presented to the public library one hundred and three Greek and Latin books, and on the college he bestowed two hundred pounds towards erecting a new chapel, and engaged other friends to contribute to the same purpose. He settled, likewise, upon the college, an annuity of twenty pounds, for the maintenance of six scholars, who are to be chosen out of the grammar school at Redgrave, near Botesdale in Suffolk. This school was founded by himself, and he allotted thirty pounds per annum for the support of it; he founded also Cursitor’s or Bacon’s Inn in Chancery-lane and for the furtherance of religion, he appointed two annual sermons in St. Paul’s cathedral-, allotting four marks per annum for the payment of the preachers. Nor must we omit some notice of his intention, in Henry VIII.'s time, to found a seminary of ministers of state out of the revenues of the dissolved monasteries.His majesty had intended to found a house for the study of the civil law, and the purity of the Latin and French tongues. He ordered, therefore, sir Nicholas Bacon, and two others, Thomas Denton, and Robert Gary, to draw out the plan and statutes of such a house, which they accordingly brought to the king in writing. The intention of it was, that there should be frequent pleadings and other exercises in the Latin and French languages, and that when the students had attained to some degree of ripeness, they should be sent out with our ambassadors, and trained up in the knowledge of foreign affairs, by which means the institution would become a nursery for public ministers. Others of the students were to be employed in writing the history of the national transactions both at home and abroad, including, particularly, embassies, treaties, arraign rnents, and state trials. But before they were to be permitted to write on these subjects, they were to take an oath before the lord chancellor, that they would do it truly, without respect of persons, and without any corrupt views. This design, however, miscarried, probably owing to Henry’s extravagant dissipation of the revenues of the dissolved monasteries.

Bishop Tanner has enrolled sir Nicholas Bacon among the writers of this country, on account of the following pieces, preserved in different manuscript collections. “An oration to the queen, exhorting her to Marriage;” “a speech to the lord mayor of London” “a speech to the serjeant called to a judge” “an oration touching the queen’s Marriage and Succession to the Crown” “his speech to the queen, when she made him lord keeper” “his speech in the star-chamber, 1568” “his speech to sir Thomas Gargrave, elected speaker for the commons house of parliament;” “his speech at the council table, concerning aid required by the Scots to expel the French out of Scotland” “his speech concerning an Interview between queen Elizabeth and the Scottish queen, 1572;” “his speech to the lords and commons in parliament, in the beginning” “his speech to Mr. Bell when he was called to be judge.” All these are in the Norwich manuscripts of More, 228 and are, we suppose, at present, in the public library of Cambridge. “Several speeches of lord keeper sir Nicholas Bacon, from 1558 to 1571 inclusive,” in Mr. Ralph Thoresby’s collection “a discourse upon certain points touching the Inheritance of the Crown, conceived by sir Anthony Brown, and answered by sir Nicholas Bacon,” published in 1723. “Three letters to Dr. Parker,” in Corpus Christi college, Cambridge mentioned by Strype, in his life of the archbishop. One of these, entitled “a letter of Mr. Nicholas Bacon, counsellor at law, to Parker, dean of Stoke college, in answer to certain cases put to him relating to the said college,” Mr. Strype has published at length. Holinshed, at the end of his second volume, p. 1589, ranks sir Nicholas Bacon in the catalogue of those who have written something concerning the history of England. Mr. Masters refers to a comment of sir Nicholas’s on the twelve minor prophets, dedicated to his son Anthony. And Mr. Strype has printed an excellent letter of advice, which was written by the lord keeper, a little before his death, to the queen, on the situation of her affairs. Many of his apophthegms are among those of lord Verulam, and many of his speeches are in the Parliamentary History.

, rector of Balden in Oxfordshire, and vicar of Bramber in Sussex, was of Magdalen college, Oxford, where he took the degree of M. A. April 17, 1722; B. D. April 29, 1731 D.D. December 7, 1735. He possessed an exquisite fund of humour, was a famous punster, and wrote ai) admirable poem called the “Artificial Kite,” first printed in 1719, and preservedin the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1758. In 1757 he published five dramatic performances, viz. J. “The Taxes.” 2. “The Insignificants.” 3. “The trial of the Time-killers.” 4. “The moral Q,uack.” 5. “The Oculist.” None of these, however, were intended for the theatre. He was also the author of a very humorous ballad, entitled “The Snipe,” in which the friar is himself, and Peter is his fellow-collegian, Peter Zinzam, M.D. who died Nov. 9, 1781. This ballad is preserved in the “Oxford Sausage.” Dr. Bacon died at Balden, Jan. 10, 1783, in the eighty-third year of his age.

, an eminent English divine of the thirteenth century, was born, according to the most probable conjectures, about 1168, but where is not known. He studied, however, at Oxford, where he distinguished himself by the quickness of his parts and his assiduous application. Thence according to the custom of that age, tie removed to Paris, and acquired such learning as the age afforded. After his return, of which we have no date, he settled at Oxford, and read divinity lectures. His colleague in this office was Dr. Edmund Rich, in our histories commonly styled Edmund Abingdon a man famous for literature, and yet, in the opinion of Leland, inferior to our Bacon. This Dr. Rich had been chosen by the canons of Salisbury, treasurer of their church, and in 1233, becoming archbishop of Canterbury, his friend Robert Bacon succeeded him as treasurer of the cathedral church of Salisbury. The same year he gained great reputation by a sermon preached before his royal master, king Henry III. at Oxford, whither his majesty came, in order to hold a general council of his lords. In this discourse, Bacon plainly told the king the mischiefs to which himself and his subjects were exposed, by his reposing too great a confidence in Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, and other foreigners and this honest sermon had a great effect on the mind of his master, and inclined him to give satisfaction to his nobility, who were then, generally speaking, disaffected. This seasonable service rendered to the nation, did more to secure his memory from oblivion, than his many years laborious reading, or even his learned writings.

After the promotion of Dr. Rich to the see of Canterbury, the famous Richard Fishakel, whom Lelaitd calls Fizacrius, read, in conjunction with our Bacon, in St. Edward’s schools, for many years together, to their own great honour, and to the benefit of all their hearers, nor were they less assiduous in preaching. In 1240, Bacon lost his great patron and intimate friend, Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, and perhaps this accident, joined to his fervent piety and love of retirement, might induce Bacon, though he was very old, to enter into the order of friars preachers, of which order also was his associate Fishakel. In gratitude to the memory of the archbishop, Bacon wrote his life, which was highly esteemed. He wrote also many pieces, which were esteemed in his day to be learned and useful. These were a book of “Glosses on the Holy Scriptures,” another <f On the Psalter,“and two collections of” Discourses“and” Lectures." At length worn Out with so long a course of studious application, he died in 1248, and is supposed to have been interred in the Dofninican convent at Oxford, Pitts, Leland, Hearne, Cave, and other authors, have confounded this Robert Bacon with Roger, the subject of the following article, as has been properly explained in the Biographia Britannica, from which this article is taken. Wood, in his history and antiquities of Oxford, has in general avoided this mistake.

Dr. Pegge, whose excellent life of bishop Grosseteste we have seen since the above article was written, thinks that Robert Bacon was either elder brother, or more probably, as Leland imagines, uncle of Roger Bacon. Robert was the person who initiated Edmund archbishop of Canterbury in the study of divinity, but Bulaeus, in his history of the university of Paris, says he was himself the scholar of that saint, which Dr. Pegge doubts. However, he wrote “Edmund’s life,” and is noticed by Leland, as the particular acquaintance and intimate of bishop Grosseteste. Matthew of Westminster gives him and Fishakel the character of being two such as were not exceeded by any in Christendom, or even equalled, especially as preachers. Dr. Pegge observes, that this character is the more extraordinary as coming from a monk, and that from the latter part of it, as well as from the list of Robert’s productions, it appears that his excellence lay in theology, a particular which constitutes an essential difference in the character of him and Roger Bacon, who was eminently skilled in the mathematics and philosophy, as well as divinity, and perhaps more so.

, a learned English monk of the Franciscan order, who flourished in the thirteenth century, was born near Ilchester in Somersetshire, in 1214, and was descended of a very ancient and honourable family. He received the first tincture of letters at Oxford, where having gone through grammar and logic, the dawnings of his genius gained him the favour and patronage of the greatest lovers of learning, and such as were equally distinguished by their high rank, and the excellence of their knowledge. It is not very clear, says the Biographia Britannica, whether he was of Merton college, or of Brazen-nose hall, and perhaps he studied at neither, but spent his time at the public schools. The latter is indeed more probable than that he studied at Merton college, which did not then exist. It appears, however, that he went early over to Paris, where he made still greater progress in all parts of learning, and was looked upon as the glory of that university, and an honour to his country. In those days such as desired to distinguish themselves by an early and effectual application to their studies, resorted to Paris, where not only many of the greatest men in Europe resided and taught, but many of the English nation, by whom Bacon was encouraged and caressed. At Paris he did not confine his studies to any particular branch of literature, but endeavoured to comprehend the sciences in general, fully and perfectly, by a right method and constant application. When he had attained the degree of doctor, he returned again, to his own country, and, as some say, took the habit of the Franciscan order in 1240, when he was about twenty-six years of age but others assert that he became a monk before he left France. After his return to Oxford, he was considered, by the greatest men of that university, as one of the ablest and most indefati^ gable inquirers after knowledge that the world had ever produced and therefore they not only shewed him all due respect, but likewise conceiving the greatest hopes from his improvements in the method of study, they generously contributed to his expences, so that he was enabled to lay out, within the compass of twenty years, no less than two thousand pounds in collecting curious authors, making trials of various kinds, and in the construction of different instruments, for the improvement of useful knowledge. But if this assiduous application to his studies, and the stupendous progress he made in them, raised his credit with the better part of mankind, it excited the envy of some, and afforded plausible pretences for the malicious designs of others. It is very easy to conceive, that the experiments he made in all parts of natural philosophy and the mathematics, must have made a great noise in an ignorant age, when scarcely two or three men in a whole nation were tolerably acquainted with those studies, and when all the pretenders to knowledge affected to cover their own ignorance, by throwing the most scandalous aspersions on those branches of science, which they either wanted genius to understand, or which demanded greater application to acquire, than they were willing to bestow. They gave out, therefore, that mathematical studies were in some measure allied to those magical arts which the church had condemned,and thereby brought suspicions upon men of superior learning. It was owing to this suspicion that Bacon was restrained from reading lectures to the young students in the university, and at length closely confined and almost starved, the monks being afraid lest his writings should extend beyond the limits of his convent, and be seen by any besides themselves and the pope. But there is great reason to believe, that though his application to the occult; sciences was their pretence, the true cause of his ill-usage was, the freedom with which he had treated the clergy in, his writings, in which he spared neither their ignorance nor their want of morals. But notwithstanding this harsh feature in the character of the times, his reputation continued to spread over the whole Christian world, and even pope Clement IV. wrote him a letter, desiring that he would send him all his works. This was in 1266, when our author was in the flower of his 4 age, and to gratify his holiness, collected together, greatly enlarged and ranged in some order, the several pieces he had written before that time, and sent them the next year by his favourite disciple John of London, or rather of Paris, to the pope. This collection, which is the same that himself entitled Opus Majus, or his great work, is yet extant, and was published by Dr. Jebb, in 1773. Dr. Jebb had proposed to have published all his works about three years before his edition of the Opus Majus, but while he was engaged in that design, he was informed by letters from his brother at Dublin, that there was a“manuscript in the college library there, which contained a great many treatises generally ascribed to Bacon, and disposed in such order, that they seemed to form one complete work, but the title was wanting, which l,iad been carelessly torn off from the rest of the manuscript. The doctor soon found that it was a collection of those tracts which Bacon had written for the use of pope Clement IV. and to which he had given the title of Opus Majus, since it appeared, that what he said of that work in his Opus Tertium, addressed to the same pope, exactly suited with this; which contained an account of almost all the new discoveries and improvements that he had made in the sciences,. Upon this account Dr. Jebb laid aside his former design, and resolved to publish only an edition of this Opus Majus. The manuscripts which he made use of to complete this edition, are, 1. ms. in the Cotton library, inscribed^” Jul. D. V.“which contains the first part of the Opus Majus, under the title of a treatise” Jl)e utijitate Scientiarnii). “2. Another ms. in the same library, marked” Tib. C. V." containing the fourth part of the Opus Majus, in which is shewn the use of the mathematics in the sciences and affairs of the world in the ms. it is erroneously called the fifth part. 3. A ms. in the library belonging to Corpus Christi in Cambridge, containing that portion of the fourth part which treats of geography. 4. A ms. of the fifth part, containing a treatise upon perspective, in the earl of Oxford’s library. 5. A ms. in the library of Magdalen college, Cambridge, comprehending the same treatise of perspective. 6. Two Mss. in the king’s library, communicated to the editor by Dr. Richard Bentley, one of which contains the fourth part of Opus Majus, and the other the fifth part. It is said that this learned book of his procured him the favour of Clement IV. and also some encouragement in the prosecution of his studies but this could not have lasted long, as that pope died soon after, and then we find our author under fresh embarrassments from the same causes as before; but he became in more danger, as the general of his order, Jerom de Ascoli, having heard his cause, ordered him to be imprisoned. This is said to have happened in 1278, and to prevent his appealing to pope Nicholas III. the general procured a confirmation of his sentence from Rome immediately, but it is not very easy to say upon what pretences. Yet we are told by others, that he was imprisoned by Reymundus Galfredus, who was general of his order, on account of some alchemistical treatise which he had written, and that Galfredus afterwards set him at liberty, and became his scholar. However obscure these circumstances may be, it is certain that his sufferings for many years must have brought him low, since he was sixty-four years of age when he was first put in prison, and deprived of the opportunity of prosecuting his studies, at least in the way of experiment. That he was still indulged in the use of his books, appears very clearly from the great use he made of them in the learned works he composed.

Pope Nicholas III. dying in the year 1280, Simon de Brie, cardinal of St. Cecilia, was elected pope, and four years after, was succeeded by cardinal Savelli, who took the name of Honoring IV. in the year 1285. Both reigns were full of troubles and very short so that in all this time our author could find no opportunity of applying to the holy see for the mitigation of the sentence pronounced against him- But when he had been ten years in prison, Jerom de Ascoli, who had condemned his doctrine, was chosen pope, and assumed the name of Nicholas IV. As he was the first of the Franciscan order that had ever arrived at this dignity, was reputed a person of great probity and much learning, our author, notwithstanding what had before happened, resolved to apply to him for his discharge and in order to pacify his resentment, and at the same time to shew both the innocence and the usefulness of his studies, he addressed to him a very learned and curious treatise, “On the means of avoiding the infirmities of Old Age,” printed first at Oxford, 1590, and translated and published by Dr. Richard Browne, under the title of “The cure of Old Age and preservation of Youth,” London, 1683, 8vo. It does not appear, however, that his application had any effect on the contrary, some writers say that he caused him to be more closely confined. But towards the latter end of his reign, Bacon, by the interposition of some noblemen, obtained his release, and returned to Oxford, where, at the request of his friends, he composed “A compendium of Theology,” which seems to have been his last work, and of which there is a copy in the royal library. He spent the remainder of his days in peace, and dying in the college of his order, on the 11th of June 1292, as some say, or in 1294, as others assert, was interred in the church of the Franciscans. The monks gave him the title of “Doctor Mirabilis,” or the Wonderful Doctor, which he deserved, in whatever sense the phrase is taken.

He was certainly the most extraordinary man of his time. He was a perfect master of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and has left posterity such indubitable marks of his critical skill in them, as might have secured him a very high character, if he had never distinguished himself in any other branch of literature. In all branches of the mathematics he was well versed, and there is scarcely any part of them, on which he has not written with a solidity and clearness, which have been deservedly admired by the greatest masters in that science. In mechanics particularly, the learned Dr. Freind says, that a greater genius had not arisen since the days of Archimedes. He understood likewise the whole science of optics, with accuracy and is very justly allowed to have understood, both the theory and practice of those discoveries, which have bestowed such high reputation on those of our own and of other nations, who have brought them into common use. In geography also he was admirably well skilled, as appears from a variety of passages in his works, which was the reason that induced the judicious Hackluyt to transcribe a large discourse out of his writings, into his Collection of Voyages and Travels. But his skill in astronomy was still more remarkable, since it appears, that he not only pointed out that error which occasioned the reformation in the calendar, and the distinction between the old stile and the new, but also offered a much more effectual and perfect reformation, than that which was made in the time of pope Gregory XIII. There are also remaining some works of his relating to chronology, which would have been thought worthy of very particular notice, if his skill in other sciences had not made his proficiency in this branch of knowledge the less remarkable. The history of the four great empires of the world, he has treated very accurately ind succinctly, in his great work addressed to pope Clelent IV. He was so thoroughly acquainted with Cheistry at a time that it was scarcely known in Europe, id principally cultivated among the Arabians, that Dr. Freind ascribes the honour of introducing it to him, who speaks in some part or other of his works, of almost every operation now used in chemistry. Three capital discoveries lade by him deserve to be particularly considered. The first is, the invention of gun-powder, which, however confidently ascribed to others, was unquestionably known to him, both as to its ingredients and effects. The second is that which commonly goes under the name of alchemy, or the art of transmuting metals, of which he has left many treatises, some published, and some still remaining in ms. which, whatever they may be thought of now, contain a multitude of curious and useful passages, independently of their principal subject. The third discovery in chemistry, not so deserving of the reader’s attention, was the tincture of gold for the prolongation of life, of which Dr. Freind says, he has given hints in his writings, and has said enough to shew that he was no pretender to this art, but understood as much of it as any of his successors. That he was far from being unskilled in the art of physic, we might rationally conclude, from his extensive knowledge in those sciences, which are connected with it: but we have a manifest proof of his perfect acquaintance with the most material and useful branches of physic, in his Treatise of Old Age, which, as Dr. Freind, whose authority on that subject cannot well be disputed, observes, is very far from being ill written; and Dr. Brown, who published it in English, esteemed it one of the best performances that ever was written. In this work he has collected whatever he had met with upon the subject, either in Greek or Arabian writers, and has added a great many remarks of his own. In logic and metaphysics he was excellently well versed, as appears by those parts of his works, in which he has treated of these subjects; neither was he unskilled in philology and the politer parts of learning. In ethics, or moral philosophy, he has laid down some excellent principles for the conduct of human life. But, as his profession required a particular application to theology, it appears, that he made all his other studies subservient thereto. He had the highest deference for the Holy Scriptures, and thought that in them were contained the principles of true science, and of all useful knowledge. He therefore pressed the study of them in their original languages, and an assiduous application to the several branches of learning, which he thought necessary for the thorough understanding of them,

As to the vulgar imputation on his character, of his leaning to magic, it was utterly unfounded and the ridiculous story of his making a brazen head, which spoke and answered questions, is a calumny indirectly fathered upon him, having been originally imputed to Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. That he had too high an opinion of judicial astrology, and some other arts of that nature, was not so properly an error of his as of the age in which he lived and considering how few errors, among the many which infected that age, appear in his writings, it may be easily forgiven. As his whole life was spent in labour and study, and he was continually employed, either in writing for the information of the world, or in reading and making experiments, that might enable him to write with greater accuracy; so we need not wonder his works were extremely numerous, especially when it is considered, that on the one hand his studies took in the whole circle of the sciences, and that on the other, the numerous treatises ascribed to him, are, often in fact, but so many chapters, sections, or divisions and sometimes we have the same pieces under two or three different names so that it is not at all strange before these points were well examined, that the accounts we have of his writings appeared very perplexed and confused. But notwithstanding this seeming perplexity and confusion, it is not a very difficult thing, to give a distinct account of his writings, the greater part of which are extant, and catalogued in the Biographia Britannica, and it were to be wished, that they were also made public. He was very far from being a hasty, incorrect, or desultory writer; on the contrary, all his works have a just reference to one great and general system, which he has executed in all its parts to a much greater degree of perfection, than has been hitherto supposed.

, surnamed the Resolute Doctor, and one of the most learned men of his time, was born about the end of the 13th century, at Baconthorp, an obscure village in Norfolk, from which he took his name. In his youth, he was a monk in the convent of Blackney, a small town in Norfolk, about five miles from Walsingham. After some years dedicated to learning and piety, he removed to Oxford, and from thence to Paris, where he was honoured with the degrees in divinity and laws, and acquired a great reputation for learning, being esteemed the head of the followers of the philosopher Averroes. Upon his return into England, he was unanimously chosen the twelfth provincial of the English Carmelites, in a general assembly of that order held at London, in the year 1329. Four years after he was invited by letters to Rome where, in several disputations on the subject of marriage, he gave no little offence, by carrying the papal authority too high in the case of divorces; but he thought fit afterwards to retract his opinion, and was held in great esteem at Rome, and other parts of Italy. His biographers report that he was of small stature, but of a great and lofty genius, and besides the encomiums bestowed upon him by his own countrymen, he has had the praises, not less high, of Baptista Mantuanus, and Paulus Panza. Bale seems to think that he anticipated the better opinions of more enlightened times. Of his works, which are numerous, the following have been published “Commentaria, seu Questiones per quatuor libros sententiarum,” which has undergone six editions; “Compendium iegis Chris ti,- et Quodlibeta,” Venice, 1527. Leiand, Bale, and Pitts give a catalogue of his manuscripts. He died at London in 1346.

, the only Protestant who went back to popery that was made bishop in the reign of Louis XIV. was born at Castelgeloux, in Gascony. After having quitted his religion, he entered himself of the Franciscan order, was then made bishop of Glandeve, and afterwards of Pamiers, where he died in 1694, at the age of ninety-four. His Latin poem on the Education of a Prince, 1671, 4to, procured him the episcopal dignity, by the interest of the duke of Montausier. This poem was reprinted in 8vo, in 1685, with notes, and the addition of some odes by the same author. He published also " Carmen pancgyricum/' Toulouse, 1667, 4to, dedicated to pope Clement IX.

, king’s advocate in the exchequer of Paris, flourished about the close of the sixteenth century, and was profoundly skilled in the municipal and civil law. He wrote many treatises on different branches of these laws, which were first published in 1608, and again in 1688, with the commentaries of Claude de Ferrieres, A third, and improved edition was printed at Lyons, 1744, 2 vols. fol. He died in April 1597, of grief for the death of his son-in-law, Charpentier, a professor of medicine in the university of Paris, who was executed for being concerned in the league, or insurrection against the succession of Henry IV.

, an English divine, and critical and polemical writer of considerable eminence, was the son of a butcher at South Moulton, in Devonshire, where he was born, Feb. 23, 1747. His relations and friends being dissenters, he was designed by them for the ministerial function and after receiving the first rudiments of his education under his maternal uncle, Mr. Blake, a dissenting minister at South Moulton, he was sent to the dissenting academy at St. Mary Ottery, in the same county. The doctrines taught in this academy were those of the old Nonconformists or Puritans, and for a considerable time, Mr. Badcock adhered to them with sincerity. His proficiency in other respects was such, in the opinion of his tutors, that at the age of nineteen, he received a call to be the pastor of a dissenting congregation at Winborne in Dorsetshire, from which he was invited to the same office, soon after, at Barnstaple in Devonshire where his’ income was more considerable, and which place was more agreeable to him as it was but a few miles from his native town. The date of his removal here is said to be in 1769, and he continued to be the pastor of this congregation for nine or ten years.

The cause of his removal from Barnstaple has been variously represented. On the one hand, it is said that a notorious indiscretion had excited the resentment of his hearers, but that he amply vindicated his character in this instance, although he could not prevent the consequences of their displeasure. On the other hand, it appears that a change in his religious opinions interrupted the union which must necessarily subsist between a pastor and his flock in dissenting congregations, where the former depends entirely for his maintenance on the good will and affection of the latter. It is certain that after he had been three or four years settled at Barnstaple, he met with some of Dr. Priestley’s Socinian productions, with which he was so captivated as to pay a visit to the Doctor, at Calne, in Wiltshire, and commenced a correspondence with him, from which it is evident that he had discarded the opinions, not only of his Calvinistic tutors, but those which are accounted orthodox by the generality of Christians.

On his quitting Barnstaple, he removed to South Moulton, where he had a congregation willing enough to receive his doctrines as he pleased to dispense them, but too few to be able to provide for him many of the comforts of life. In this retirement, his mind, ever active, and well stored with miscellaneous literature, turned its views to some employment in the learned world. During the progress of the London Review, which terminated in 1730, he occasionally corresponded with the editor, Dr. Kciirick and contended with that sceptic, a man of no mean talents, on different points of Christianity. He occasionally also wrote some articles in that Review, which are yet distinguishable by their spirit and intelligence. He was before this period an occasional correspondent in the Westminster Magazine, where, in 1774, he wrote "An essay on modern Education: Anecdotes of Mr. John Wesley, with, two of his original letters A Shandean letter A scription of a desperate case The Presbyterian Parson’s Soliloquy The Expostulation An improved copy, occasioned by a most horrid murder: An essay on Infidelity Extracts of a letter sent by a clergyman to his friend, after having met with ill treatment from Lord (a real letter on his own case) A clerical character, aimed at a free-thinking Lecturer, who made some noise at that time. These, it must be confessed, are trifles, but discover much vivacity of imagination, and a turn for poetry which might have been cultivated with advantage.

We find Mr. Badcock afterwards frequently corresponding with the Gentleman’s Magazine the London Magazine, where for some time he had a regular engagement the General Evening Post and St. James’s Chronicle. But the gjreat scene of his literary warfare, was in the Monthly Review, in which he appears to have criticized many works of considerable note, and in a manner which attracted the attention of the public to a journal, (already the highest in general estimation) in no common degree, lu 1780, when a controversy arose respecting materialism, Mr. Badcock published “A slight sketch of the controversy between Dr. Priestley and his opponents,” and from this time he became the decided antagonist of the doctor in all those opinions upon which they formerly corresponded, and appeared to agree. The influence of Mr. Badcock’s education seems to have returned with increased force, and although he did not revert to some of the principles of his early days, and in no respect resumed the garb or the behaviour of a Puritan, he certainly became a zealous contender for the Trinitarian system, in opposition to Socinianism in all its modifications. This was particularly displayed in his review of Dr. Priestley’s “History of the Corruption of Christianity,” in 1783, and 1784, and the controversy to which that work gave rise between Dr. Priestley, and Dr. Horsley, then archdeacon of St. Alban’s, and successively bishop of Rochester and St. Asaph. He, had before this, however, interested the public attention by the review of Mr. Madan’s “Thejyphthora,” and displayed a force of genius, skill of argument, and depth of learning, which that author found irresistible. No work apparently of eminence, and calculated for popularity, perhaps ever was so completely driven into oblivion by the efforts of a periodical reviewer. Nor was Mr. Badcock’s triumph less complete over the believers in Chatterton’s imposture, although it must be owned that in this last controversy he had able coadjutors.

While at Barnstaple, Mr. Badcock became acquainted with a daughter of Mr. Samuel Wesley, master of Tiverton-school, and elder brother of the celebrated John Wesley from her he received a considerable quantity of papers, consisting chiefly of letters and pieces of poetry. Some of these he published entire, as already mentioned, in the Westminster Magazine for 1774, and from the whole, with some oral communications, he drew up that account of the family which was published in N. XX. of the “Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica.” The whole of these letters and papers fell afterwards into Dr. Priestley’s hands, who published them upon Mr. Wesley’s death.' Dr. Whitehead, the biographer of Wesley, seems ­to think there is some mystery in this transaction, which he confesses he was not able to clear up.

Among his other literary labours, Mr. Badcock frequently gave assistance to authors who were about to publish, but had diffidence in their own abilities. One instance of this kind occasioned a temporary controversy a few years ago. When professor White of Oxford was appointed Bampton lecturer, he formed the plan of a course of lectures, which induced him to apply to Mr. Badcock, with whose talents he had become acquainted, for some assistance his application was accordingly effectual, and Mr. Badcock, to whom the subjects to be treated were familiar, contributed very considerably to the first, third, fourth, seventh, and eighth lectures, and supplied many of the ndtes. There was certainly nothing in this, but what one man of learning may owe to another, without detracting much from his own character. But Dr. White unfortunately neglected to make the usual complimentary acknowledgements of assistance, in his preface and upon Mr. Badcock’s death, the late Dr. Gabriel of Bath published a pamphlet tending to prove that Mr. Badcock’s contributions were so large as to leave Dr. White the reputation only of having preached and published these very popular lectures. Dr. White, however, answered this charge in such a manner as to vindicate his literary fame from the attempts made to diminish it.

We are now come to an uera in Mr. Badcock’s life which may appear very remarkable, his quitting his dissenting connexions, and embracing the doctrines and discipline of the established church. This brought much undeserved obloquy on his character, for there appears no reason to doubt his sincerity in reverting to principles most of which had been inculcated in his youth, and of which he had already become the zealous champion when he could have no motive but the love of truth, and no expectations but the perishing fame of a polemic. In Sept. 1786, he thus writes to a friend “I have resigned my function as dis<­senting minister. It was long long a most grievous op^­pression. I have boldly shook it off, and I will run the risk of the displeasure of my relations, and defy the con^ tumacy of my enemies. I have not absolutely determined on my future plan. Whatever it may be, I hope to secure the protection of Providence, by preserving the integrity of my own mind.”

It has been supposed that his acquaintance with the bishop of Exeter, Dr. Ross, and the most respectable clergymen of his diocese, might have led him to examme the foundation of dissent audit might have appeared to him, as it has to very many of sound judgment and acknowledged abilities, that this foundation was groundless. He was led to conform by no promise, and, at best, by very distant views of advancement. It is, indeed, impossible to read the heart of man but, if it can be read by an intimate acquaintance, his conformity was sincere. But whatever were his views, or the views of those who wished to see him among the defenders of the established church, they were disappointed by a premature death, In the spring of 1787, he was ordained deacon by bishop Ross, and, by a very distinguished compliment, received priest’s orders the following week. The title upon which he was ordained was the curacy of Broad Clyst, near Exeter, and he afterwards preached, as assistant to Dr. Gabriel, in the Octagon chapel, Bath. He was much afflicted with head-aches, which frequently interrupted his public services. In May, 1788, he was attacked by an illness which proved fatal on the 19th of that month, while on a visit to his friend sir John Chichester, bart. in Queen- street, May-Fair.

Some time before his death, he was requested to arrange the papers which Mr. Chappie had collected for his improved edition of Risdon’s “Survey of Devon.” After this was done, he was earnestly urged, from these materials, with additional assistance, such as influence or fortune could bestow, to write the history anew. For this undertaking he had many qualifications, if his health could have been preserved. When at Bath, he preached a chanty sermon, which was afterwards printed, but not published. In his person, Mr. Badcock was short, but well made, active, lively, and agreeable his eyes were peculiarly vivacious, and his whole countenance indicated strong intellectual powers, far above the general run of mankind, and a disposition replete with sensibility, tenderness, and generosity. This short sketch of his life has been taken from very copious materials, published in the Gentleman’s Magazine* vol. LVIII, p. 595, 69.1, 780, 781, 868; LIX, p. 571, 713, 776, 871, 877; and the reader may form a judgment of his critical talents by perusing the following articles in the Monthly Review, in addition to what have been already mentioned Sherlock’s Letters; David Williams’ s Lectures; Steevens’s Shakspeare, edit. 1780; Malone’s Supplement; Milne’s Sermons; Mac-NicoFs Remarks on Dr. Johnson History of Moravianism Jacob Behmen’s Life; Mainwaring’s Sermons; Von Troil’s Letters on Iceland Milles’s edition of Rowley’s poems Nichols’s Life of Hogarth, and Bowyer’s Miscellaneous Tracts, 1785. His first review was of Ruhnkenius’s edition of Homer’s Hymn to Ceres, which he sent anonymously to the Editor.

, who, as founder of Clare-hall, Cambridge, is justly entitled to a place among the benefactors of learning, was descended from a knightly family, seated at Great Badew, or Badow, near Chelmsford, in the county of Essex. From this place, they took their surname and here, probably, Richard de Badew was born. In 1326, he was chancellor of the university of Cambridge and having purchased two tenements in Miln-street, of Nigel Thornton, a physician, he laid there, in the year abovementioned, the foundation of a building, to which was given the name of University hall. Stow differs from this account, in asserting that the twq houses of old belonged to the chancellor and university. Badew, however, placed a principal in this hall, who was to take care of th pensioners that came to live there at their own expence or, as others say, at the charge of the university for, as yet, it was not endowed, and this, it must be confessed, suits rather better with the term pensioner. University hail continued in this condition for the space of sixteen years, and then by an accidental fire Was burnt down. Richard de Badew being unable to rebuild it, it lay for a few years in ruins. But one of the late pensioners having a great interest with Elizabeth, daughter of sir Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, and third sister and co-heir of sir Gilbert de Clare, the last earl of Gloucester and Hertford, of that name and family, he prevailed upon her to undertake what de Badew was not able to perform. Accordingly this lady, after the resignation of Walter Thaxted the principal, and with the consent of Richard de Badew, rebuilt that hall, and endowed it, in the year 1347, with revenues for one master, ten fellows, and ten scholars, and at the same time named it Clare hall. When she founded it, king Edward III. gave licence of mortmain to the master and scholars to take lands and tenements, to the value of forty pounds a year. The revenues of this hall have been augmented since by several benefactors. It was again rebuilt in 1638, and the magnificent chapel in 1763. It contains a master, ten senior fellows, fifteen juniors, and three lay- fellows.

, or in Latin, Jodocus Badius Ascensius, an eminent French printer, was born in 1462, at Assche, a village in the territory of Brussels, from which he derived the name Ascensius. He first studied at Ghent, then at Brussels, and lastly at Ferrara in Italy. He made great progress in the languages, and principally in the Greek, which he learned at Lyons and at Paris. He printed a great many books, and usually in the frontispiece had a printing press as his mark. He is also the author of some books, among which are <c Sylva moralis contra vitia“” Psalterium B. Mariae versibus“” Epigrammatum Lib. I“* f Navicula stultarum mulierum” “VitaThomce a Kempis” “De Grammatica” “De conscribendis Epistolis.” He wrote also commentaries on Horace, Virgil, Juvenal, Lucan, Sallust, Valerius Maximus, Quintilian, Aulus Gellius, and soiue parts of Cicero’s works. At Paris he taught Greek, and' explained the poets at Lyons. His high reputation in these studies induced Treschel, the famous printer, to engage him as corrector of his press, not only secured his valuable services by taking him as a partner in the business, but also gave him his daughter Thalia in marriage, who was also a learned lady. After the death of his father-in-law, in 1500, he was engaged by Gagnin, the royal librarian, to visit Paris, where he removed with his family, and established an excellent printing office, by the name of Praelum Ascensianum, from which many good editions issued, although his type was not so much admired as that of the Stephens’s. He died in 1535. His son Conrad Badius settled at Geneva, having embraced Calvinism, and was both a printer and an author. Two of his daughters were married to eminent printers, one to Michel Yascosan, and the other to Robert Stephens.

, a senator of Venice, who died an 1580, has left various treatises on the civil law, which were printed at Venice in 1593, and reprinted at Boulogne in 1744. His son Peter Badoaro, was also celebrated for his knowledge of law, and died in 1591. His “Orationi Civili,” were published in 1593, if this be not, as we suspect, a production of the father. Frederick Badoaro, of the same family, was distinguished for his learning, and talents as a negociator. He was Venetian ambassador at the court of Charles V. and Philip II. and was the founder, of the academy known by the name of Delia Fama, at Venice. He died in 1593. From the three concurring events under this year, it is probable, there are some mistakes in this account, which we have taken from the Diet. Hist.

, an eminent Italian painter, born at Parma, according to Basan, in 1581, was a disciple of Annibai Caracci, by whose admirable precepts he made an extraordinary progress in a short time, and proved the best designer of any of those who were educated with him in that illustrious school. He possessed a lively imagination, and a singular readiness of hand' and it was concluded by all who saw his performances, that he would have arrived at a high degree of merit, if he had not died in the very bloom of life, and if he had applied himself with more assiduity to his profession. Basan’s account, however, makes him reach his sixty-sixth year, but it does not appear on what authority. Badofocchi is to be ranked among engravers also, and there are many etchings by him, in a slight, free, masterly style. They are generally more finished than those of Guido but the extremities are by no means so finely drawn. Amongst the best, is Raphael’s Bible, from the pictures of Raphael in the Vatican, small plates, lengthways, engraved canjointly with Lanfranchi. This is a well-known work.

, in Latin Baduellus, a Protestant divine of the sixteenth century, was a native of Nismes, and taught in the university of that city. In 1557 he went into Switzerland, and became the pastor of a church in the vicinity of Geneva, and“taught philosophy and mathematics till his death in 1561. He translated several of Calvin’s sermons into Latin, which he published at Geneva, also” Acta Martyrum nostri sseculi,“Genev. 1556” Oratio ad Instituendum Gymnasium Nemausensi de Studiis Literarum“” De Collegio et Universitate Nemausensi;“”Epistola Paracnetica ad Paulum filium de vero patrimonio et hsereditate quam Christiani parentes suis liberis debent relinquere,“and some other works, all in Latin, which he was thought to write with great fluency. But his most remarkable work was entitled” De ratione vitoe studiosa3 ac literatas in Matrimonio collocandae ac degendae," which has been three times printed in 8vo and 4to, 1544, 1577, and 1581. A defence of marriage, at that time, was an object of some importance, and its advantages to men of literature are displayed with good sense in this work. Bayle gives a long account of it, and a farther list of BaduePs works may be seen in Gesner’s Bibliotheca.

, a native of Milazzo in Sicily, was born in 1639, and cultivated with success the dissimilar studies of mathematics and poetry. After travelling from 1660 to 1680 over most parts of Europe, he remained for some years at Paris and Madrid, and then returned to his native country, where he produced two dramatic pieces, the “Temple of Tempe,” and “Polixenes,” and published “Odes,” “Sonnets,” and an “Historical account of the City of Messina,” Francfort, 1676. The time of his death is uncertain.

, son of Eric Basngius, a divine, was born at Helsingborg in Sweden, in 1633, and studied first at Stregne,s in Sudermania, and afterwards at UpsaL Colonel Sylver Sparre, hearing of his good character and abilities, appointed him tutor to his son, with whom Bsengius travelled into Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, and visited eleven universities. On his return to his own country, he was called to the theological chair of Abo in Finland, when only in his thirty-second year. In 1682, Charles IX. king of Sweden, appointed him to the bishopric of Wyburgh in Carelia. Baengius introduced many useful regulations in his diocese, particularly with respect to schools, and established a printing-office. He died in 1696. He wrote a commentary, in Latin, on the epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, which was printed at Abo in 1671, 4to the “.Life of St. Anscharius” a work on the ecclesiastical history of Sweden a treatise on the sacraments a Lutheran catechism several disputations, and funeral orations, and a sacred chronology.

, a learned printer at Louvain, of the sixteenth century, was also an able mathematician, and wrote, 1. “De compositione et usu Decretorii Pianetardm,” 1530, 4 to. 2. “De compositione et usu Quadrantis,” 1534, 4to. He published also, but without his name, “Tabulae perpetuae Longitudinum ac Latitudinum Planetarum, ad Meridianum Lovanierisem,” edited by Gilbertus Masius, 1528, 4to.

, an eminent French physician, was born at Nancy, Jan. 2, 1686, and died there, Dec. 7, 1772. We have no farther particulars of his life, but his works were numerous, and accounted valuable. They are, 1. “Histoire de la Theriaque,” 1725, 8vo. 2. “Dissertation sur les Tremblemens de Terre, et les Epidemies qu'ils occasionnent,” 8vo. 3. “Explication d‘un passage d’Hippocrate sur les Scythes qui deviennent Eunuques,” 3759, 8vo. 4. “Analyses des eaux Minerales de Contrexeville et de Nancy.” 5. “Des Memoires sur la petite verole, les centenaires, et les vomissemens, produits par la passion liiaque.” He published also in Latin, a Dispensatory, in folio, and a treatise on the Materia Medica, both about the year 1771, the latter in 8vo.

, an Arabian mathematician, is usually classed among the authors of the tenth century. He is said to have written some treatises on geometry, and among others, one entitled “De superficierum divisionibus,” which Dr. Dee of London, and Frederic Commandini of Urbino, translated into Latin. The latter published his translation at Pesaro in 1570, with another on the same subject of his own composition. Some, however, are of opinion that the original treatise was by Euclid, to whom Proclus ascribes one on that subject, and that Bagdedin was only the translator of it into the Arabic language.

, an English writer of considerable talents, was born Feb. 29, 1728, at Darley, a hamlet in the parish of St. Alkmond’s, Derby, where his father was employed on a paper-mill. When put to school, this son made an uncommon progress in such learning as was within his reach, and after remaining there the usual time, he was trained to his father’s business. When he advanced in life, married, and became settled in the business of papermaking, he continued 'to cultivate his mind, by adding a knowledge of the French and Italian languages, and even the more abstruse branches of mathematics. His conversation and correspondence sparkled with all the wit and information which are expected in men of a literary turn, but he was considerably advanced in life before he tried his powers in any regular composition. A loss sustained in business is said to have first induced him to take up the pen, not as a source of emolument, but to divert his mind from repining reflections. With this view he wrote, and in 1781, published “Mount Heneth,” a novel which became justly popular, from the vivicity of its style and dialogue, and the many well-drawn characters, and apposite reflections on questions of morality and humanity. This was followed by other productions of the same kind, < Barham Downs,“the Fair Syrian,” and “James Wallace,” which were all favourably received by the public, as far superior to the common run of novels. In private life, Mr. Hutton of Birmingham, has celebrated him as a man of most amiable and benevolent character; but we are sorry that he adds, that “he laid no stress upon revelation/' and was” barely a Christian." There are, indeed, passages in his works which justify this character, and leave us much to regret in the history of a man of stfich excellent talents and personal worth in other respects. Mr. Bage died Sept. 1, 1801, in the 74th year of his age, at Tamworth.

, an industrious antiquary and collector of literary curiosities, the son of John and Elizabeth Bagford, of the parish of St. Anne, Blackfriars, London, was born in October 1675, and bred to the humble occupation of shoemaker. He was early led, by whatever means, to inquiries respecting the antiquities of his own country, and its literary history, and in the course of his researches he acquired an extensive knowledge of old English books, prints, and rarities, dear to the heart of a collector, which he carefully picked up at low prices, and sold again for a moderate profit. In this mixture of study and trade he passed the greater part of his life, and with such zeal, that he more than once travelled abroad, with commissions from booksellers, and collectors, whom he amply satisfied by his skilful punctuality, and moderate charges. In the course of his labours, he made himself acquainted with the history of printing, and of the arts connected with it, and in 1707, published in the Philosophical Transactions, his “Proposals for a History of Printing, Printers, Illuminators, Chalcography, Paper-making, &c.” soliciting the humble price of one pound for a folio volume, to consist of two hundred sheets. These proposals, of which there are several copies in the British museum, are printed on a half-sheet, with a specimen on another, containing the life of Caxton, and a list of his books. The numerous manuscripts by him on this subject, now in the British museum, prove that he had at least provided ample materials for a work of this description, and was not upon the whole ill qualified to have written it, as far as a liberal education could have been dispensed with. He had probably no encouragement, however, and at his death, nine years afterwards, these ms collections were purchased by Mr. Humphrey Wanley, for lord Oxford’s library, and came in course with the Harleian Mss. into the British museum. The assertion, in the last edition of this dictionary, that a part of his collections were deposited in the public library at Cambridge, and never opened, has been contradicted on the authority of Dr. Farmer, the late learned master of Emanuel college.

and inscriptions alluding to the history of printing. His curious letter to Hearne, in the first volume of the second edition of " LelancTs Collectanea^' p. 58, relative to London, and the antiquities in its vicinity^ is very creditable to his talents as an antiquary. He was much employed and respected by lord Oxford, Dr. John Moore bishop of Ely^ sir Hans Sloane, sir James Austins-, Mr. Clavel, &c; and it is said, that for having enriched bishop Moore’s library with many curiosities (which were purchased by George I. and given to the university of Cambridge), his lordship procured him an admission into the charter-house, as a pensioner on that foundation, in the cemetery of which he was buried. He died at Islington, May 15, 1716, aged sixty-five. In Mr. Dibdin’s Bibliomania, are many curious particulars respecting Bagford, and an estimate of his talents and usefulness founded on Mr. Dibdin’s very laborious inspection of his Mss.

, bishop of Copenhagen, was born at Lunden in 1646. His father Olaus Bagger taught theology in the school of Lunden, but sent his son to Copenhagen for education. He afterwards travelled to Germany, the Netherlands, and England, studying under the most able masters in divinity and the oriental languages, and then returned to Copenhagen. When Lunden became a part of the Swedish dominions, the king established an academy there, and Bagger was appointed to teach the oriental languages. He had scarcely begun to give lessons, however, when by the advice of his friends of Copenhagen, he solicited and obtained, in 1674, the office of first pastor of the church of the Holy Virgin in that metropolis. In 1675, after the usual disputation, he got the degree of doctor, and on the death of John Wandalin, bishop of Zealand or Copenhagen, he was appointed to succeed him, at the very early age of twenty-nine. His promotion is said to have been in part owing to his wife Margaret Schumacher, the widow of Jacob Fabri, his predecessor, in the church of the Holy Virgin at Copenhagen, and to the brother of this lady, the count de Griffenfeld, who had great interest at court. Bagger, however, filled this high office with reputation, as well as that of dean of theology, which is attached to the bishopric of Copenhagen. He revised the ecclesiastical rites which Christian V. had passed into a law, as well as the liturgy, epistles, and gospels, collects, &c. to which he prefixed a preface. He also composed and published several discourses, very learned and eloquent, some in Latin, and others in the Danish tongue. He died in 1693, at the age of 47. By his second wife, he left a son Christian Bagger, who became an eminent lawyer, and in 1737 rose to be grand bailly of Bergen, and a counsellor of justice.

, a Roman artist, was born about 1573, and acquired the rudiments of art from Francesco Morelli, a Florentine, but formed himself on better masters feeble in design and expression, he is distinguished by chiaroscuro, and a colpur which approaches that of Cigoli his praised picture of the Resuscitation of Tabitha, is lost, but his frescoes in the Vatican and the Capella Paolina at S. Maria Maggiore, still remain to give an idea of his powers. He lived long, employed and ennobled by pontiffs and princes but owes the perpetuity of his name perhaps more to his “Lives of Painters, Sculptors, and Architects,” than to great technie eminence. That work was entitled “Le Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti dal 1572 al 1642,” Rome, 1642, and again in 1649, 4to. It forms a continuation of Vasari’s Lives. Baglioni died about the time of publication.

, an eminent Italian physician, was born at Ragusa, in the year 1669, of a family which originally came from Armenia. Pietro Angelo Baglivi, an eminent and opulent physician, is said to have adopted this youth, and bestowed on him his name, while he charged himself with his maintenance and education. George Baglivi, accordingly, was sent to Salerno, where he took his first degree, and where he became partial to the study of natural history. The same pursuit he afterwards followed at Padua and Bononia, but his chief instructor and most intimate friend was Malpighi, whom he visited at Rome, and by whose influence he was promoted to teach anatomy in that city. With many frionds, this occupation procured him also some enemier, excited probably by the fame he obtained. He persisted, however, in his lectures, and published his “Praxis,” which differed much from that in common use, as he recommended a closer attention to clinical observations than had been usual, and discarded the humoral system altogether^ attributing the cause of diseases to the altered tone of the solids. He supposed likewise an alternate motion between the heart and the- dura mater, by which the whole animal machine was actuated. He had, however, no sooner published these doctrines, than Antonio Pacchione accused him of having stolen them from his works, if he denied the charge, or of having taken them, if he would confess it; but Baglivi proved that Pacchione’s observations were published almost a year later than his own, and urged, that whatever coincidence there might be, he had the credit of establishing his doctrines upon a more firm basis. His enthusiasm in his profession led him to devote much of his time to writing, and his pieces went through many editions before they were collected, and printed together at Nurimberg, 1738, 4to, but afterwards much more completely at Venice, in 1752, and lastly, with a preface, notes, and emendations by Phil. Pinel, M. D. 2 vols. 1788, 8vo. There are also Paris editions in 4to, 1711 and 1765. His biographer represents him as a man of piety and benevolence, and of much learning, independent of his more immediate studies. He died March 1707.

, an Italian poet, a man of opulence as well as fame by his writings, and esteemed among the good poets of his age. His failing is said to have been that of being difficult to please in his own compositions, which he filed and polished till he wore off the strength of the metal. He knew how to draw an exact outline, and to give a strong colouring, but he held his pencil too long, and was over-anxious in the finishing part. These were not, however, the failings of his time. He is best known at present to those who study Italian poetry by “The Arragonians,” a tragedy, and “The Judgment of Paris.” We have no dates of his birth or death, except that he was famed as a poet, about 1590, and Erythraeus (Le Koux) says that he died an old man.

, an English prelate, son of sir Walter Bagot, bart. and brother to the first lord Bagot, was born Jan. 1, 1740. He was educated at Westminster school, and chosen thence student of Christ-church, took the degree of M.A. May 23, 1764, and LL.D. Feb. 29, 1772. In In 1771 he was made canon of Christ-church in the room of Dr. Moore, the late archbishop of Canterbury, and the same year he married Miss M. Hay, niece to the earl of Kinnoul. He was installed dean of Christ- church, Jan. 25, 1777, on the translation of Dr. Markham to the see of York, about which time he resigned the livings of Jevington and Eastbourne in Sussex, in favour of his nephew, the Rev. Ralph Sneyd. In 1782 he was promoted to the see of Bristol, translated to Norwich the year following, and thence to St. Asaph in 1790, where he rebuilt the palace on an uncommon plan, but necessary for the situation, where, among the mountains, and in the vicinity of the sea, storms are often violent. The palace, therefore, is low; and being on the assent of a hill, the vestibule, dining-room, and drawing-room, which occupy the whole front of the building, are on a level with the first floor in the other apartments, two of which, on the ground-floor, are a neat domestic chapel and a library.

Dr. Bagot was a man of great learning, an accomplished scholar, and of the most gentle and amiable manners. As a patron, he deserves much praise for bestowing the ample patronage of his see, with great disinterestedness and impartiality, among the learned and meritorious clergy of his diocese, acquainted with the language and manners of the district. His publications were not very numerous. In the “Pietas et Gratulatio Univ.Oxon. 1761,” on the accession, of his present majesty, are some English blank verses, by him and he also contributed some verses on his majesty’s marriage, and on the birth of the prince of Wales, all which are inserted in vol. VIII. of Nichols’s poems. In ]772, when the question of subscription to the thirty-nine articles was agitated, he published “A defence of subscription to the XXXIX Articles, as it is required in the university of Oxford.” This was anonymous, and occasioned by a pamphlet, also anonymous, entitled “Reflections on the impropriety and expediency of Lay Subscription in the university of Oxford.” In 1779 he preached and published the Radcliffe Infirmary sermon, and in 1730 his principal work appeared, “Twelve discourses on the Prophecies,” preached at the Warburtonian lecture in Lincoln’s Inn chapel. The earnestness with which he contends in these discourses for the essential doctrines of the church, was again apparent in his next publication, “A letter to the Rev. W, Bell, D. D.” on the subject of his late publications upon the authority, nature, and design of the Lord’s Supper,“1781, 8vo. In this Dr. Bagot objects to the Socinian tendency of Dr. Bell’s arguments and about the same time he reprinted, with a short preface, Dr. Isaac Barrow’s” Discourse on the doctrines of the Sacrament," which is now one of the tracts dispersed by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. His other publications were, a sermon before the house of lords, Jan. 30, 1783 one for the Norwich hospital; and two others before the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, 17 88, and the Society for propagating the Gospel, 1790. A small pamphlet against the Anabaptists, and a charge delivered when bishop of Norwich, were printed by Dr. Bagot, but not generally published. In all his works he displays a fervent zeal for the principles of religion and of loyalty, joined with much knowledge of the true grounds of both nor will it be thought an objection of much consequence, that he did not stand high in the opinion of those who contended for such innovations as in his opinion endangered the whole fabric of church government and doctrine.

For nearly ten years before the death of this worthy prelate, he had been in a declining state of health, and was wasted to the appearance of a mere skeleton. He was confined to bed, however, only the day before he departed this life, June 4, 1802. His remains were interred at St. Asapk with those of Mrs. Bagot, whom he survived not quite three years.

, a gentleman of a Derbyshire family, was born in London, and in 1604 became a commoner of Brazen-nose college, Oxford, under the tuition of the pious Mr. Robert Bolton four years after, he took a degree in arts, and then removed to the Middle Temple, where he studied law, became a bencher, and of considerable reputation in his profession. In 1639 he was elected Lent reader, and chose for his first reading an argument very suitable to the growing turbulence of the times, endeavouring to prove that a parliament may be held without bishops, and that bishops ought not to meddle in civil affairs, but the lord keeper Finch, at archbishop Laud’s request, ordered him to desist. This, however, giving bim a character unhappily too popular, he was elected M. P. for the borough of Southwark, in the parliament of 1640; but perceiving the outrages the members were about to commit, beyond all bounds of temperate reformation, he went to Oxford, and sat in the parliament called there by the king. After continuing at Oxford for some time, he was taken prisoner by the rebels in Oxfordshire, and sent to London, where the house of commons committed him to the king’s bench, and he suffered afterwards in his estate in Northamptonshire. On the Restoration we find him treasurer of the Middle Temple. He died in 1662, and was interred in Morton-Pinkney in Northamptonshire, leaving two sons, Henry and Edward, of whom some notice will be taken. He published, 1. “The life and death of Mr. Robert Bolton,” London, 1633, 4to, 2. “Several speeches in parliament,” 1640, 1641, 4to. 3. “Two arguments in parliament, on the Canons and Praemunire,” London, 1641, 4to. 4. “Treatise defending the revenues of the church in Tithes and Glebe,” ib. 1646, 4to. 5. “Treatise maintaining the doctrine, liturgy, and discipline of the Church of England.” The two last written during his imprisonment. 6. “Short censure of the book of Will. Prynne, entitled ‘The university of Oxford’s plea refuted’,” 1648, 4to. 7. “Just vindication of the questioned part of his reading had in the Middle Temple hall, Feb. 24, 1639,” London, 1660, 4to. 8. “True narrative of the cause of silencing him, by the archbishop of Canterbury,” printed with the preceding. See Rushworth’s Collections, p. 990. 9. “The rights of the Crown of England, as it is established by law,” London, 1660, 8vo, written, as most of the others were, during his confinement.

, son of the preceding, was born at Broughton in Northamptonshire, in 1629, educated at Westminster school, and elected student of Christ-church in 1646, where, according to Wood, his conduct for some time was turbulent and disorderly. Having finished his studies, however, he was in 1656 appointed to officiate as second master of Westminster school, and in 1657 was confirmed in the office. Behaving improperly to the celebrated Busby, he was, in 1658, turned out of this place; but soon after he became vicar of Ambrosden in Oxfordshire, having taken orders from Brownrig, bishop of Exeter. After the Restoration, Arthur earl of Anglesey appointed him his chaplain, on which Mr. Bagshaw left Ambrosden, in hopes of farther promotion, which, however, he never attained, having written and preached doctrines against the church and state, for which he was committed prisoner, first to the Gatehouse in Westminster, next to the Tower, and thence to South Sea castle, Hampshire, in 1664. After his release he returned to London, and fell tinder fresh suspicions, and having refused the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, was committed to Newgate, where he continued twenty-two weeks. He appears to have been again released, as he died at a house in Tothill-street, Westminster, Dec. 28, 1671, and was buried in Bunhillfields cemetery, with an altar monument, and an inscription written by the celebrated Dr. Owen, implying that he had been persecuted for his adherence to the gospel, and had now taken sanctuary “from the reproaches of pretended friends, and the persecutions of professed adversaries.” Baxter’s account is less favourable he records him as an anabaptist, fifth-monarchy man, and a separatist, a man of an extraordinary vehement spirit, but he allows that he had been exasperated by many years “hard and grievous imprisonment.” Wood has a long list of his writings, mostly controversial with Baxter, L'Estrange, and others, and probably forgotten. All his biographers, however, allow him to have been a man of abilities.

, D.D. brother of the above, was also born at Broughton in 1632, and educated at Westminster school, and elected student of Christ-church in 1651, of which he was M. A. 1657. He was chaplain to sir Richard Fanshaw, ambassador in Spain and Portugal, and on his return was made chaplain to archbishop Stern, who gave him the prebend of Southwell and rectory of Castleton in Synderick. In 1667 he held the prebend of Barnaby in York cathedral, and in 1668, that of Friday Thorp. He took the degree of B.D. 1668, and D.D. 1671. In 1672 he was made chaplain to the lord treasurer Danby, and rector of St. Botolph’s church, Bishopsgate, London, which he exchanged for Houghton-le-Spring. In 1680 he was installed a prebendary of Durham, and died at Houghton, Dec. 30, 1709. He was of a totally different character from his brother. He published “Diatribae, or discourses upon select texts, against Papists and Socinians,” London, 1680, 8vo, and several single sermons.

, a nonconformist minister, was born at Litton in the parish of Tidswell, Jan. 17, 1627-8, and educated in Corpus Christi college, Cambridge after which he entered into orders, and preached with great applause in different parts of Derbyshire. He obtained the living of Glessop, which he held till 1662, when he was obliged to resign it, because he would not comply with the act of uniformity and then he preached privately at different places till the Revolution, when a large meeting-house was built for him, and he continued pastor of a numerous congregation till his death, April 1, 1702. He was the author of several small practical treatises, much esteemed in that age. Among these is a work, partly of a biographical kind, entitled “De Spiritualibus Pecci, or notes concerning the work of God, and some that have been workers together with God, in the High Peak,” (of Derbyshire), 1702. Besides his printed works, he left behind him fifty volumes, on various subjects, some in folio and some in 4to, fairly written with his own hand.

, a French Latin poet, was born at Chatillon in the Lower Maine, and became a priest of the Oratory at Paris, in 1659. He had considerable genius, and was much addicted to study, so that he soon became one of the best scholars and best poets of his order. When M. Fouquet, superintendant of finances, was arrested, he published a Latin poem, entitled “Fuquetius in vinculis,” which was much applauded. He published another poem at Troyes in 1668, the title of which was, “In tabellas excellentissiim pictoris du Wernier, ad nobilem et eximium virum Eustachium Quinot, apud quern illae visuntur Trecis, carmen.” Father Bahier translated this production afterwards into French verse, under the title of “Peinture poctique des tableaux de mignature de M. Quinot, faits par Joseph de Werner.” At the time he taught rhetoric at Marseilles, in 1670, he delivered and published an oration on Henrietta of England, duchess of Orleans, and the same year printed a Latin poem of six hundred verses in praise of Toussaint Fourbin de Janson, bishop of Marseilles. He wrote some other pieces, which were less known; such was Uis reputation, however, that he was chosen secretary of the Oratory, an office which he filled with great credit for thirty years his latter days were distinguished by many acts of ciiarity, and it was during his attendance on a dying friend that he caught a disorder, which proved fatal in the month of April 1707.

, one of those German writers who have of late years disgraced the profession of religion and philosophy, was born in 1741, at Leipsic, where his father was a clergyman, and educated this son for the church, but with so little success that he soon left college, and enlisted in the army. Being bought off, however, he returned to the university, and in 1761 was admitted to the degree of M. A. Soon afterwards he became catecbist in his father’s church, was a popular preacher, and in 1765 published sermons and some controversial writings, which evinced that he possessed both learning and genius. From his early days he appears to have been of a debauched turn, with a propensity to satire which no considerations could restrain and these two qualities, which he persisted in all his life, laid the foundation of what he termed his misfortunes, although they were no other than the contempt which his infamous conduct and impious doctrines have a natural tendency to produce in every well-ordered society. His life became a series of adventures too numerous for the plan of this work but the principal were these.

One of his shameful amours having rendered it necessary for him to leave Leipsic, his friends, with some difficulty, obtained for him a professorship at Erlangen, afterwards at Erfurth, and in 1771 at Giessen. But the boldness of his doctrines, and the malignity of his satirical compositions, of which he was very fond, would soon have expelled him from Giessen, if, just as he was about to be dismissed from his professorship, he had not received an invitation to Marschlins in Switzerland, to superintend an academy. To this place he went about 1776, and began his new career by forming the seminary after the model of an academy which had before been projected by Basedow, in the principality of Anhalt Dessau, under the name of P hilanthropinum. The plan of this was professedly to form the young mind to the love of mankind and of virtue, without any aid from religion, except what he was pleased to call philosophical religion. But the Swiss were not yet prepared torso great a change of system, and after disgusting them with doctrines, the immoral tendency of some of which could no longer be mistaken, he removed to Durkheim, a town in the Palatinate, and formed an association for a Philanthropinum of his own. A large fund was collected, and he was enabled to travel into Holland and England to engage pupils. England is said to have furnished four.

On his return he obtained the castle of count Leining Hartzburgh at Heidesheim, for his Pkilanthropinum^ and in 1778 it was consecrated by a solemn religious festival. His conduct here, however, was too obnoxious both in principle and practice, to permit him a long continuance, and his shocking treatment of his wife contributed to render the scheme abortive. His academy became in debt, and he took to flight, but was imprisoned at Dienheim. On his release he settled at Halle, as the keeper of a tavern and billiard table, and lived in open adultery with a woman who was his assistant, and for whom he turned his wife and daughter out of doors.

His next design was to direct the operations of a secret society called the “German Union for noting out superstition and prejudices, and for advancing true Christianity.” To forward this project, which was but a branch of the general conspiracy then carrying on by the enemies of religion and government, he published a great many books, containing principles fortunately so wild and extravagant as to prove in some measure an antidote against the intended mischief. When he had laboured in this cause about two years, some of the secrets of the Union transpired his former conduct and his constant imprudence made him suspected his associated friends lodged informations against him his papers were seized, and he himself was sent to prison, first at Halle, and then at Magdeburg. After a year’s confinement he was released, and would probably have concerted some new projects, had he not been attacked by a disorder which put an end to his life, April 23, 1793.

His numerous works evince learning and sagacity, much critical taste, and considerable powers of discussion, but their general tendency is so hostile to all that the good and wise hold sacred, and to all that the well-being of society requires to be held sacred, that an enumeration of them may well be spared, especially as it is very unlikely they will ever be imported into this country, and probably have already sunk into oblivion on the continent. Of hi* private character enough may be seen to illustrate the pniiCxp.es of such philosophers, in his lite in Di*. Gi. L's supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, from wh tii.s sketch has been extracted, and in professor Robmscn’s Proois of a Conspiracy. If higher proof be wanting, it may be taken from his German biographer Schlichtegroll, or from his life written by himself, which is a wonderful specimen of the effrontery of acknowledged depravity.

, a celebrated physician, born at Jena in 1677, practised his art in several towns of Germany; among others, at Nuremberg, Ratisbon, and Altorf. He was professor at this last-mentioned place, and member of the Academy des Curieux de la Nature, in 1720. He was chosen president of it in 1730, and died at Altorf the 14th of July 1735. He was author of, 1. “Thesaurus Gemmarum affabre sculptarum, coliectus a J. M. ab Ebermayer,” Nuremberg, 1720, folio. 2. “Horti medici acad. Altorf. Historia,” Altorf, 1727, 4to. 3. A great number of dissertations or theses, on particular plants, in 4to, from 1710 to 1721.

, a French divine,and subpemtentiary of the metropolitan church of Paris, was born at Abbeville, it is supposed of English parents. He arrived at his doctor’s degree in 1628. In 1651 he published his most celebrated work, dedicated to the archbishop of Paris; “De triplici examine ordinand. confess, etpcenitent.” 8vo, which passed through many editions in his life- time. He assisted also in the publication of some editions of the Councils. In 1666 he published a work upon the most celebrated preachers from the earliest times to the beginning of the seventeenth century, a 4to volume, under the title of “Sapientia foris prgedicans,” in which he not only gives a succinct account of the lives of the most celebrated preachers, but also points out in what they excelled, and the most remarkable passages in their discourses. Before this he published a tivatise, “De Beneficio Crncis,” Paris, 1653. 8vo, in opposition to the sentiments of Jansenius on the subjects of grace and predestination. His “Philosophic affective” appeared at Paris in 1657, 12mo. It contains many small devotional pieces, and a curious collection of “Pieuses reparties,” or pious repartees, selected from various authors, and some from his own experience. The time of his death is not specified in Moreri, or any of the authorities from which this article is taken.

, the author of a well-known dictionary of the English language, resided principally at Stepney, and there probably died, June 27, 1742, leaving no memorials of his personal history or character. In religion he is said to have been a Sabbatarian. His life, however, appears to have been spent in useful pursuits. His English dictionary, printed first in the early part of the last century, in 8vo (edit. 4th, 1728), was long the only one in use, and still continues a favourite with a certain class of readers. It was afterwards enlarged into 2 vols. 8vo, and some years after printed in folio, with additions in the mathematical part by G. Gordon, in the botanical by Phil. Miller, and in the etymological by T. Lidiard, the whole revised by Dr. Josepii Nicol Scott, a physician. Of this there was an improved edition in 1759, about which time the fifteenth edition of the 8vo was published. The 8vo, about twenty-five years ago, was revised by Dr. Harwood. Bailey also published a “Dictionarium domesticum, or a household dictionary,” 1736; “The Antiquities of London and Westminster,” 24mo, 1726, an useful abridgment; “An introduction to the English Tongue, two parts;” and school editions of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Ovid’s Epistles, Justin, Erasmus’s Dialogues, Phædrus’s Fables, and a book of Exercises, which are all still in use.

, an eminent French critic, was born at Neuville near Beauvais in Picardy, June 13, 1649. His father, who was poor, and unable to give him a learned education, sent him to a small school in the neighbourhood, where he soon learned all that was taught there, and desirous of more, went frequently to a neighbouring convent, where, by his assiduities in performing little menial offices, he ingratiated himself with them, and by their interest was presented to the bishop of Beauvais. The bishop placed him in the college or seminary of that name, where he studied the classics with unwearied assiduity, borrowing books from his friends, and it is even said he took money privately from his father, in order to buy books. In the course of his reading, which was accurate and even- critical, he formed, about the age of seventeen, a commonplace book of extracts, which he called his “Juvenilia,” in two large volumes, very conducive to his own improvement, and afterwards to that of M. de Lamoignon, his patron’s son. He then studied philosophy, but with less relish, his predilection being in favour of history, chronology, and geography; yet in defending Ins philosophical theses, he always proved his capacity to be fully equal to his subject. In 1670 he went to one of those higher seminaries, formerly established by the French bishops for the study of divinity, which he pursued with his usual ardour and success, although here his early taste discovered itself, in his applying with most eagerness to the fathers and councils, as more nearly connected with ecclesiastical history. So intent was he on researches of this kind, that he fancied himself solely qualified for a life of studious retirement, and had a design of going, along with his brother Stephen, to the abbey La Trappe, but this was prevented by the bishop of Beauvai? bestowing upon him, in 1672, the appointment of teacher of the fifth form in the college, from which, in 1674, he was promoted to the fourth. This produced him about sixty pounds a-year, with part of which he assisted his poor relations, and laid out the rest in books, and had made a very good collection when he left the college. Among other employments at his leisure hours he compiled two volumes of notices of authors who had disguised their names, of which the preface only has been published.

In 1676, he received holy orders, and passed his examinations with high approbation. Monnoye, one of his biographers, mentions a circumstance very creditable to his superiors, that, although they were satisfied with his learning, they would not have admitted him into orders, if they had not discovered that he was superior to the vanity which sometimes accompanies a reputation for learning. The bishop of Beauvais now gave him the vicarage of Lardieres, which netted only 30l. yearly, yet with this pittance, Baillet, who maintained a brother, and a servant, contrived to indulge his humanity to the poor, and his passion for books, to purchase which he used to go once a year to Paris. His domestic establishment was upon the most temperate scale, no drink but water, and no meat, but brown bread, and sometimes a little bacon, and a few herbs from his garden boiled in water with salt, and whitened with a little milk. The cares of his parish, however, so much interrupted his favourite studies that he petitioned, and obtained another living, the only duties of which were singing at church, and explaining the catechism. A higher and more grateful promotion now awaited him, as in 1680, he was made librarian to M. Lamoignon, not the first president of the parliament, as Niceron says, for he was then dead, but his son, who at that time was advocate-general. To this place he was recommended by M. Hermant, a doctor of the Sorbonne, who told Lamoignon that Baillet was the proper person for him, if he could excuse his awkwardness. Lamoignon answered that he wanted a man of learning, and did not regard his outward appearance. To Baillet such an appointment was so gratifying that for some time he could scarcely believe M. Hermant to be serious. When he found it confirmed, however, he entered upon his new office with alacrity, and one of his first employments was to draw up an index of the library, which extended to thirty-five folio volumes, under two divisions, subjects and author’s names. The Latin preface to the index of subjects, when published, was severely, but not very justly censured by M. Menage, as to its style. After this, he completed four volumes of his celebrated work “Jugemens des Savans,” and gave them to the bookseller with no other reserve than that of a few copies for presents. The success of the work was very great, and the bookseller urged him to finish the five volumes that were, to follow. He did not, however, accomplish the whole of his design, which was to consist of six parts. I. In the first he was to treat of those printers, who had distinguished themselves by their learning, ability, accuracy, and fidelity. Of critics, that is, of those who acquaint us with authors, and their books, and in general those, who give an account of the state of literature, and of all that belongs to the republic of letters. Of philologists, and all those who treat of polite literature. Of grammarians and translators of all kinds. II. Poets, ancient and modern writers of romances and tales in prose rhetoricians, orators, and writers of letters, either in Latin, or in any of the modern languages. III. Historians, geographers, and chronologists of all sorts. IV. Philosophers, physicians, and mathematicians. V. Authors upon the civil and canon law, poJitics, and ethics. VI. Writers on divinity particularly the fathers, school-divinity heretics, &c. He published, however, only the first of these divisions, and half of the second, under the title of “Jugemens des Savans sur les principaux ouvrages des Auteurs,” Paris, 1685, 12mo. It is, in fact, a collection of the opinions of others, with seldom those of the author, yet it attracted the attention of the literary world, and excited the hostility of some critics, particularly M. Menage, to whom, indeed, Baillet had given a previous provocation, by treating him rather disrespectfully. The first attack was by father Commire, in a short poem entitled “Asinus in Parnasso,” the Ass on Parnassus, followed afterwards by “Asinus ad Lyram,” and “Asinus Judex,” all in defence of Menage and the poets and an anonymous poet wrote “Asinus Pictor.” It does not appear, however, that these injured the sale of the work; and in 1686, the five other volumes, upon the poets, were published, with a preface, in which the author vindicates himself with ability. M. Menage now published his “Anti-Baillet,” in which he endeavoured to point out Baillet' s errors and another author attacked him in “Reflexions sur le Jugemens des Savans, [envoy 6ez a l'auteur par un Academicien,” 1691, with Hague on the title, but really in France, and, according to Niceron, written by father Le Tellier, a Jesuit, all of which order resented Baillet' s partiality to the gentlemen of Port Royal. The editor of the Amsterdam edition of the “Jugemens,” attributes this letter to another Jesuit, a young man not named. Of these censures some are undoubtedly just, but others the cavils of caprice and hypercriticism.

In 1688, Baillet published his very amusing work, “Les Enfans devenus celebres par leurs etudes et par leurs ecrits,” Paris, 2 vols. 12mo. This collection of examples of young geniuses was thought well calculated to excite emulation, and soon became a very popular book, the professors of the universities, and other teachers of youth, strongly recommending it. His next work was of a singular cast. Conceiving that when Menage wrote his “Anti-Baillet” he meant a personal, as well as a critical attack, he began to form a catalogue of all works published with similar titles, beginning with the Anti-Cato of Cassar, the most ancient of the Anti’s, and concluding with trie AntiBaillet. This was published in 1689. “Des Satyres personelles, Traite historique et critique de celles, qui portent le titre d'Anti,” Paris, 2 vols. 12mo. The industrious Marchand, however, has given a very long catalogue of Anti’s omitted by Baillet, in his vol. I. under the article Anti-Garasse. Bailiet afterwards prepared a more useful work, for which he had made copious collections, with a view to discover the names of those authors who have used fictitious ones. In 1678 he had written in Latin “Elenchus Apocalypticus Scriptorum Cryptonymorum,” but of this he published only a preliminary treatise in French, “Auteurs degnisez sous des noms etraiigers, &c. tome I. contenant le traite preliminaire, sur le changement et la supposition des noms parmi les Auteurs,” Paris, 1620, 12mo. His design resembled that of Placcius in his treatise “De Anonymis et Pseudonymis,” and they had some communication together on the subject. Niceron attributes Baillet’s suppression of this work to the fear of giving offence, which might surely have been avoided if he had left contemporary writings to some future editor. In 1691, he wrote the “Life of Des Cartes,” in 2 vols. 4to, which was criticised in “Reflexions cl' un Academicien sur la Vie de M. des Cartes, envoyees a un de ses amis en Hollande,” ascribed, by Le Long, to Gallois, and by Marchand, to Le Tellier. The chief fault, is that very common one, in single lives, of introducing matters very slightly, if at all, connected with the history of the principal object, and from much that is in this work, Des Cartes might be supposed a warlike general, or a controversial divine. It succeeded so well, however, that a second edition was prevented only by his death but before that event he abridged it in one volume 12mo, and also wrote the life of Richer, doctor of the Sorbonne, which was not printed until several years after his death, at Liege, 1714, 12mo.

His next publication ranks him among the pseudonymous authors, a “History of Holland,” from the peace in 1609 to that of Nimeguen in 1679, under the name of Balthasar d'Hezenail de la Neuville, the anagram of Baillet de la Neuville en Hez, 4 vols. 12mo. Next year he published “De la Devotion a la Sainte Vierge, et du Culte qui lui est du,” 12mo, a piece of catholic superstition, which was attacked in two pamphlets. He had formed many more useful designs, as an universal ecclesiastical dictionary, embracing every subject of doctrine, morality, and discipline; but this and all his other schemes were interrupted by his death, Jan. 21, 1706. He was much regretted as an indefatigable scholar, and a valuable contributor to literary history. His extreme temperance and close application to study injured his health, and brought on all those miseries of a sedentary life, which exhausted his constitution, when only in his fifty-sixth year. In Lamoignon’s family, he was treated with the tenderness and respect due to his laborious services and blameless character. His last moments were marked by piety and fortitude, and his last breath expressed a blessing on his benefactors. His “.lugemens des Savans,” Mr. Dibdin justly observes, is one of those works with which no man fond of typographical and bibliographical pursuits, can dispense. In 1722, a new edition of it in 7 vols. 4to, was published by M. de la Monnoye, including the “Anti-Baillet” and a new edition at Amsterdam, 1725, in 16 or sometimes 8 vols. 12mo, by far the best. These editions are improved by Monnoye’s useful notes, a life of Baillet, some of the pamphlets written against him, and other documents of importance.

Besides these, Baillet published, “1.” De la conduitedes Ames,“1695, 12mo, under the fictitious name of Daret de la Villeneuve. 2.” Discours sur la vie des Saints,“Paris, 1700, 8vo, reprinted before the” Vies des Saints,“Paris, 1701, 3 vols. fol. and 1704, 8vo. 3.” Histoire d&s Fetes Mobiles Les vies des Saints de PAncien Testament, &c.“Paris, 1703, fol. 4.” Les maximes de St. Etienne de Grammonte,“Paris, 1704, 12mo, a translation from the Latin. 5.” La vie de Godfrey Hermant,“a posthumous work, Amst. 1717, 12mo. 6. *” Histoire des demeles du Pape Boniface VIII. avec Philippe le Bel, roy de France," also posthumous, Paris, 1718, 12mo.

, known also by the name of La Riviere, who flourished in the latter part of the sixteenth century, was a native of Falaise in Normandy, and physician in ordinary to Henry IV. He acquired considerable reputation for learning, but, as he practised on the principles of Paracelsus, he was involved in disputes with his brethren, and frequently obliged to vindicate his method. Besides medicine, he was well versed in philosophy and the belles lettres, and was an excellent naturalist. He died at Paris, Nov. 5, 1605. When feeling the approaches of death, he sent for all his servants, and distributed his money and property among them, on condition that they immediately left the house, which was so punctually complied with, that when the physicians came on their next visit, they found the doors open, and their patient by himself, with no property left hut the bed he lay upon. When the physicians remarked this circumstance to him, he answered that he must now go likewise, “as his baggage was sent off before him, 17 and immediately expired. Pierre de l'Etoile, however,^ in his journal of Henry IV. represents him as a true penitent, and compares him to the thief on the cross. His works are” Demosterion, sive CCC Aphorismi, continentes summam doctrinae Paruecelsse,“Paris, 1573, 8vo.” Resp*onsio ad questiones propositas a medici* Parisiensibus,“Paris, 1579, 8vo.” Traite-de la Peste,“1580.” Traite* de Tantiquite et singularite de la grande Bretagne Armorique," Rennes, 1587, 4to.

, an eminent Presbyterian divine of the seventeenth century, was born at Glasgow in the year 1599. His father, Mr. Thomas Baillie, was a citizen of that place, and son to Baillie of Jerviston. Our Robert Baillie was educated in the university of his native city where, having taken his degrees in arts, he turned his thoughts to the study of divinity and, receiving orders from archbishop Law, he was chosen regent of philosophy at Glasgow. While he was in this station, he had, for some years, the care of the education of Lord Montgomery, who, at length, carried him with him to Kilwinning; to which church he was presented by the earl of Eglintoun. Here he lived in the strictest friendship with that noble family, and the people connected with it; as he did also with his ordinary the archbishop of Glasgow, with whom he kept up an epistolary correspondence. In 1633, he declined, from modesty, the offer of a church in Edinburgh. Being requested in 1637, by his friend the archbishop, to preach a sermon before the assembly at Edinburgh, in recommendation of the canon and service book, he refused to do it; and wrote a handsome letter to the archbishop, assigning the reasons of his refusal. In 1638 he was chosen by the presbytery of Irvine, a member of the famous assembly at Glasgow, which was a prelude to the civil war. Though Mr. Baillie is said to have behaved in this assembly with great moderation, it is evident that he was by no means deficient in his zeal against prelacy and Arminianism. In 1640 he was sent by the covenanting lords to London, to draw up an accusation against archbishop Laud, for his obtrusions on the church of Scotland. While he was in England, he wrote the presbytery a regular account of public affairs, with a journal of the trial of the earl of Strafford. Not long after, on his return, he was appointed joint professor of divinity with Mr. David Dickson, in the university of Glasgow, and his reputation was become so great, that he had before this received invitations from the other three universities, all of which he refused. He continued in his professorship till the Restoration but his discharge of the duties of it was interrupted for a considerable time, by his residence in England for, in 1643, he was chosen one of the commissioners of the church of Scotland to the assembly of divines at Westminster. Though he never spoke in the debates of the assembly, he appears to have been an useful member, and entirely concurred in the principles and views of its leaders. Mr. Baillie returned again to his own country in the latter end of 1646. When, after the execution of Charles I. Charles II. was proclaimed in Scotland, our professor was one of the divines appointed by the general assembly to wait on the king at the Hague; upon which occasion, March 27, 1649, he made a speech in the royal presence, expressing in the strongest terms his abhorrence of the murder of the late king and, in his sentiments upon this event, it appears that the Presbyterian divines of that period, both at home and abroad, almost universally agreed. After the restoration of Charles II. Mr. Baillie, Jan. 23, 1661, by the interest of the earl of Lauderdale, with whom he was a great favourite, was made principal of the university of Glasgow, upon the removal of Mr. Patrick Gillespie, who had been patronised by Cromwell. It is said by several writers, that Mr. Baillie had the offer of a bishopric, which he absolutely refused. Though he was very loyal, and most sincerely rejoiced in his majesty’s restoration, he began, a little before his death, to be extremely anxious for the fate of Presbytery. His health failed him in the spring of 1662. During his illness he was visited by the new-made archbishop of Glasgow, to whom he is said to have addressed himself in the following words “Mr, Andrews (I will not call you my lord), king Charles would have made me one of these lords but I do not find in the New Testament, that Christ has any lords in his house.” Notwithstanding this common-place objection to the hierarchy, he treated the archbishop very courteously. Mr. Baillie died in July 1662, being 63 years f age. By his first wife, who was Lilias Fleming, of the family of Cardarroch, in the parish of Cadder, near Glasgow, he had many children, five of whom survived him, viz. one son, and four daughters. The posterity of his son, Mr. Henry Baillie, who was a preacher, but never accepted of any charge, still inherit the estate of Carnbrae, in the county of Lanerk, an ancient seat of the Baillies. Mr. Baillie’s character ha% been drawn to great advantage, not only by Mr. Woodrow, but by an historian of the opposite party. His works, which were very learned, and acquired him reputation in his own time, are 1. “Opus Historicum et Chronologicum,” Amsterdam, 1668, fol. 2. “A Defence of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland, against Mr. Maxwell, bishop of Ross.” 3. “A Parallel betwixt the Scottish Service-Book and the Romish Missal, Breviary,” &c. 4. “The Canterburian Self-Conviction.” 5. “Queries anent the Service-Book.” 6. “Antidote against Arminianism.” 7. “A treatise on Scottish Episcopacy.” 8. “Laudensium.” 9. “Dissuasive against the Errors of the Times, with a Supplement.” 10. “A Reply to the Modest Enquirer,” with some other tracts, and several sermons upon public occasions but his “Opus Historicum et Chronologicum,” was his capital production. The rest of his writings, being chiefly on controversial and temporary subjects, can, at present, be of little or no value. But his memory is perhaps yet more preserved by a very recent publication, “Letters and Journals, carefully transcribed by Robert Aiken containing an impartial account of public transactions, civil, ecclesiastical, and military, both in England and Scotland, from 1637 to 1662 a period, perhaps, the most remarkable that is to be met with in the British History. With an Account of the Author’s life, prefixed and a Glossary annexed,” Edinburgh, 1775, 2 vols. 8vo. The chief correspondents of Mr. Baillie were, Mr. William Spang, minister first to the Scotch Staple at Campvere, and afterwards to the English Congregation in- Middleburgh in Zealand, who was his cousin -german Mr. David Dickson, professor of Divinity, first at Glasgow, then at Edinburgh and Messrs, Robert Ramsay and George Young, who were ministers in Glasgow. There are, in this collection, letters to several other persons but Mr. Spang was the gentleman with whom Mr. Baillie principally corresponded. The journals contain a history of the general assembly at Glasgow, in 1638; an account of the earl of Stafford’s trial the transactions of the general assembly and parliament, in 1641 and the proceedings of thegeneral assembly, in 1643.

, or Ballonius, an eminent French physician and writer, was born about 1538, of a considerable family in Perche, and studied at Paris, where he received his doctor’s degree, in 1570, and during the course of his licentiate, was so able and victorious in the disputations, as to be named the Scourge of Bachelors. he was dean of the faculty in 1580, and his high reputation influenced Henry the Great to choose him first physician for his son, the dauphin, in 1601 But he preferred the sweets of domestic life to the honours of the court, and employed such leisure as his practice allowed, in writing several treatises on medical subjects, and was not more distinguished for knowledge in his profession, than for true piety and extensive charity. He died in 1616, His works were published after his death 1. “Consiliorum Medicinalium lib. II.” Paris, 1635, 4to, edited by his nephew Thevart. 2. “Consiliorum Med. lib. tertius,” ibid. 1649, 4to. 3. “Epidemiorum et Ephemeridum lib. II.” ibid. 1640, 4to, and in 1734, dedicated to sir Hans Sloane. 4. “Adversaria Medicinalia,” 4to, ibid, or, according to Haller, the same as “Paradigimata et historic morborum ob raritatem observatione dignissimse,” ibid. 1648, 4to. 5. “Definition tun Medicarum liber,” ibid. 1639, 4to. 6. “Commentarius in libellum Theophrasti de Vertigine,” ibid. 1640, 4to. 7. “De Convulsionibus libellus,” ibid. 1640, 4to. 8. “De Virginum et Mulierium morbis,” ibid. 1643, 4to. 9. “Opuscula Medica,” ibid. 1643, 4to. 10. “Liber de Rheumatismo et Pleuritide dorsali,” ibid. 1642, 4to. Of all these, and other works by him, a complete edition was published at Geneva, 1762, 4 vols. 4 to.

, an eminent French astronomer, was born in Paris, Sept. 25, 1736. His father was the fourth in succession of his family who followed the profession of a painter and young Bailly was also destined to painting, and had already made some progress in the art, when he showed a decided inclination for the study of the belles-lettres. Poetry was the first object that engaged his attention he even produced some tragedies which were praised by Lanoue, not however without advising his young friend to attend rather to science and Lacaille essentially contributed to direct his attention to the study of Natural Philosophy accordingly, in the year 1762, he presented to the academy “Observations on the Moon,” which Lacaille had made him draw up with all the particularity of detail required* by the new state of astronomy, and which were quoted by him with approbation, in the sixth volume of the Ephemerides.

He calculated the orbit of the comet of 1759, the period of whose return had occupied the attention of astronomers, and on the 29th of January 1763, he was received into the Academy of Sciences. In the same year he published a large and useful work, the reduction of the observations which Lacaille had made in 1760 and 1761, on 515 zodiacal stars, 132 of which are not to be found in preceding catalogues the remainder are contained in Meyer’s Zodiac, but their positions are laid down with much greater exactness by Lacaille. Bailly thus rendered an important service to astronomy by editing a work, which, on account of the death of its author, would have remained useless, if it had not been for the zeal of his pupil.

Bailly began about this period also to turn his attention to the theory of the satellites of Jupiter, the difficulty and importance of which had already attracted the notice of the academy, who proposed it as a prize subject in April 1764. Le Grange, who now stood first among tha geometricians of Europe, was one of the candidates for the prize. The theory of Clairaut was employed by Bailly in calculating the same perturbations the united efforts of these two philosophers for the first time made us acquainted with the singular derangements of these little planets, by constructing new tables of them, for all former attempts had been merely empirical.

In 1766 he published an important treatise, with the modest title of “Essai sur la theorie des Satellites de Jupiter,” together with tables of their movements, and fche history of this branch of astronomy, in 53 pa-es 4to, The most ingenious memoir which he published, is that for 1771 on the light of the satellites. On this occasion he availed himself of an excellent idea of F'ouchy, of covering the end of a telescope with thin pieces of bladder till the satellite could be no longer seen, in orderly this means to measure the degree of its light. He also observed and calculated the changes produced by their proximity to Jupiter, and their altitude above the horizon he ascertained their diameters, the duration of their several immersions, and invented a method of composing the observations made with different telescopes, by which he introduced a degree of perfection till that time unknown in this part of astronomy. The intervals of his astronomical labours were agreeably occupied by general literature. In 1767 he was elected member of the academic Frangoise, for his eloge of Charles V. a work which obtained distinguished praise from the academy, though fhe prize was adjudged to La Harpe.

In 1768 he sent to the academy of Rouen the eloge of Corneille, which gained the accessit. His eloge of Leibnitz, sent to the academy of Berlin, obtained the prize. In 1769 his eloge of Moliere gained the accessit at the academic Franchise the prize was gained by Chamfort. His abilities in this style of writing were still further rendered conspicuous by the eloges of Cook, Lacaille, and Cresset; so much so, that Buffon and many other members of the Academic des Sciences wished to obtain him the appointment of secretary to that distinguished society; and though at the election in 1771, Condorcet had the majority of votes, yet the nobility of his birth and the exertions of d'Alembert probably contributed very essentially to secure him the preference. Bailly was at length recompensed by the Academic Franchise, by being appointed on February 26th, 1784, the successor of Tressan.

In 1775, the first volume of his great work, “L‘Histoire de l’Astronomie,” made its appearance In this his taste for literature and his scientific skill most happily united to produce a work at once agreeable and important, abounding with learned dissertations, luminous ideas, and brilliant descriptions, adapted to advance the knowledge and the love of astronomy, and probably of more advantage to that science in procuring it proselytes, than profound treatises, so rarely sought for, and still more rarely understood. L'Histoire de PAstronomie, though not a treatise on this science, is so elementary, so simple, and so agreeable, as in a great measure to conceal its difficulties, and display to the greatest advantage its attractions and beauties.

Bailly presented his book to Voltaire, who, in his letter of thanks, proposed a few objections this introduced a correspondence, from which resulted two interesting volumes; his “Lettre sur Porigine des Sciences,” and his “Lettre sur PAtlantide de Platon,” and on the antient history of Asia, published in 1777 and 1779.

In 1781 and 1782 he composed a great work on the “Origin of Fables and Aflcient Religions,” the continuation of which was published in 1800, abounding with erudition and information. He did not entirely adopt the allegorical system of the ancient traditions which citizen Dupuis has so victoriously established in the Journal des Savans of 1779 and 1780, and in his other works.

His opinions on the ancient state of Asia, were very similar to those of Buffon, which are to be found in that part of his work which treats of the cooling of the earth, a circumstance which caused an intimate acquaintance between them, till the election of Maury to the Academie Franchise caused an irrevocable disagreement. Bailly not only denied his vote to a man for whom he had no esteem, but even refused to absent himself from the academyn the day of election and from this time no further connexion subsisted between these celebrated men, one of whom wished to be the master, and the other chose to be independent.

Bailly had been engaged by his history of astronomy, in very deep historical researches, which the Academic des Inscriptions and Belles Lettres expressed their approbation of, by electing him a member in 1785. Thus he shared with Fontenelle the singular honour of being at the same time a member of the three great academies, and certainly surpassed him in his acquaintance with ancient learning.

His “History of India and Oriental Astronomy,” which appeared in 1787, well justified the choice of the academy, for it demanded a multitude of researches which no one was capable of making to an equal extent with himself, since they required not only great erudition, but a vast variety of calculations, to which men of letters are seldom equal.

The animal magnetism of Mesmer, as practised by Deslon in 1784, occasioned a most extraordinary and unaccountable agitation at Paris. In order to satisfy the curiosity of the public on this subject, a number of physicians were nominated by the king, and of natural philosophers by the academy Bailly was one of the commissioners, and was chosen by the rest to draw up their report. It occupied 108 pages in octavo, and engaged his principal attention for a considerable time, for it was an important fact in the history of the errors of the human mind, and a most extraordinary instance of the power of imagination.

The academy having nominated in 1786, commissioners to examine a plan by Poyet, architect, for a new Hotel Dieu, Bailly drew up their report in 250 pages octavo which is a valuable instance both of the professional knowledge and the humanity of the author. He proposed the erection of four different hospitals and Breteuil, who was then minister, and had great reliance on Bailly, had finally resolved on executing his plan, when the revolution of 1789 drove him from the ministry.

On April the 26th, 1789, the electors of Paris as*. sembled for the nomination of deputies for the statesgeneral, appointed Bailly for their secretary. There were assembled, on this important occasion, many academicians, but none, except Bailly, was a member of all the academies. His talent for writing was well known the interesting reports that he had made on the subject of the hospitals and animal magnetism, had powerfully excited the attention of the public his character stood equally high for calmness of temper and strictness of morals, so that no one possessed so many claims as himself to that important office. The choice of the public was too flattering to be resisted and from that time he was lost for ever to astronomy. The motives that occasioned his first appointment soon advanced him to the dignity of deputy and president of the tiers etat, which assembled on the 5th of May at Versailles. The several deputies from the communes having constituted themselves on the 17th of June, a national assembly, Bailly was still continued president, and distinguished himself considerably. He it was, who on the 20th, of the same month, conducted the asse-nbly to the tennis-court, and he still continued to preside, when, on the 27th, the two other orders united themselves to the tiers-etat. He resigned his office on July 22d, and the duke of Orleans was appointed his Sik> cessor.

When the king arrived at Paris, on the 25th of July, after the capture of the Bastile, Bailly was chosen by public acclamation, chief magistrate of the city, under the name of Mayor of Paris. It is not our intention to follow him through the whole of his political career his eulogist, however, affirms that in his situation as deputy, president, and mayor, he exhibited the wisdom, the firmness, and the moderation of a philosopher. He is accused by some of having endeavoured to debase the royal dignity, and by others of having wished unreasonably to exalt it. The validity of these contradictory charges can only be ascertained by some future generation. He might possibly be mistaken, but the rectitude of his conduct as a magistrate, his ardent desire to promote the welfare of his countfy, and his entire devotedness of his time, his life, his favourite studies, and his happiness, to this great object, are unquestionable. The public bodies to which Baiily belonged, bore distinguished evidence to his worth; his bust was placed in the municipality, and in the academy of sciences, where that of any of its living members had never been deposited. His honours now rose to their futl height. Placed between the people and the king, though responsible to both, he protected them from each other his influence was of infinite service to them, and he maintained the equilibrium of a philosopher, amid the sohcitations of both parties.

The most disagreeable period of his administration, and the most fatal in its effects, was the 17th of July, 1792, when the party in opposition to the monarchical constitution excited commotions in the people, which he was obliged to quell, by order of the national assembly. He was forced to repair to the Champ de Mars, where, notwithstanding his precaution, some muskets were discharged on the crowd. For this act, two years after, his head was demanded, when the only object of the reigning tyrant was to flatter the people, to indulge its passions, and even exceed its resentments.

Bailly was mayor of Paris from July 15, 1789, to November 16th, 1791, that is, uvo years and a half. At the conclusion of this period he was induced to resign his situation on account of the opposition raised by the democratic party who wished to substitute Petion, the declining state of his health not allowing him to engage in active measures to secure his continuance in office. He spent the year 1792 and part of 1793 in travelling, and writing an account of those extraordinary events which he had witnessed, and in which he had been a distinguished actor. These memoirs, which are not carried lower than October 2, 1789, were published in 1804. The edition in two volumes published in 1790 by Debure, of his speeches and memoirs, contains only those that were written before Sept. 1789. When the remainder of them shall be collected, they will add much interest to his character and conduct. During his journey he was by no means ignorant of the plans that were forming against him, and several opportunities offered of quitting France Cato said ingrata patria mea, nee ossa habebis. Bailly, more firm than Cato, preferred the example of Socrates, and refused to abandon his country.

Such a man could only be condemned for an error, or by a crime but the retroactive effect of a law expressly declared to be unjust by the fourteenth article of the rights of man, was a crime daily committed during the nine months reign of that ferocious wild beast, which was extinguished on the 9th of Thermidor. Bailly became a victim of this bloody tribunal on November llth, 1793, and those that had procured his condemnation, prolonged the period of his suffering by changing the place of execution when he had already arrived at the scaffold.

Bailly married, in 1787, Jeanne le Seigneur, the widow of his intimate friend Raymond Gaye. She was of an age proper to inspire the regard and attachment of a man of worth, who was not to be influenced by the ordinary motives of beauty or fortune, especially since he had eight nephews, whom he educated with all the care of a father.

In person Bailly was tall, of a sedate but striking countenance, and his temper, though firm, was joined to much sensibility. His disinterestedness appeared frequently, and in a very striking manner, towards his relations and during his magistracy, he expended a considerable part of his income in administering to the necessities of the poor. Few men of letters have eminently distinguished themselves in so many different ways, and no one has ever united so many titles of respect with such various and general applause; but his highest and greatest fame is derived from his virtue, which always remained unblemished, unsuspected, and admired by the academy, by the metropolis, in the highest situations, in the most respectable public bodies: those who knew him the best loved him the most, and in his own family he was almost adored.

Such is the life and character of Bailly, as given by La Lande in his eloge, and as far as respects his learning and private life seems to admit of no deduction. It is evident, however, that he was ill qualified for the transition he made from the calm pursuits of study to the wild enthusiasm of a revolution conducted, almost throughout, by the vilest and most worthless of mankind, at the expence of the wise, the learned, and the honest part of the French nation, many of whom were unfortunately seduced to be their auxiliaries. It is very probable that he saw his error when too late, and when summoned as a witness on the trial of the queen, he had the courage to declare that the facts in the act of accusation drawn up against this princess, were false and forged.

, M. D. a physician of the fifteenth century, was a native of Scotland, and after being educated in his native country, went to Italy, where he studied medicine with such reputation as to be made rector, and afterwards professor of medicine in the university of Bologne, about the year 1484. In his theory, he adopted the Galenic system in preference to the empiric, and wrote “Apologia pro Galeni doctrina contra Empiricos,” Lyons, 1552, 8vo. Dempster says that he returned to Scotland before his death, the date of which is not mentioned. Mackenzie thinks he also wrote a book published in 1600, 8vo, “De Quantitate Syllabarum Græcarum, et de Dialectis.”

, an eminent physician and astronomer, born in 1582, at Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, was educated at the public school of that town; and from thence went to Emanuel college in Cambridge, under the tuition of Dr. Joseph Hall, afterwards bishop of Norwich. When he had taken his degrees of bachelor and master of arts, he went, back to Leicestershire, where he taught a grammar-school for some years, and at the same time practised physic. He employed his leisure hours in the mathematics, especially astronomy, which had been his favourite study from his earliest years. By the advice of his friends, who thought his abilities too great for the obscurity of a country life, he removed to London, where he was admitted a fellow of the college of physicians. His description of the comet, which appeared in 1618, greatly raised his character. It was by this means he got acquainted with sir Henry Savile, who, in 1619, appointed him his first professor of astronomy at Oxford. Upon this he removed to that university, and was entered a master commoner of Merton college; the master and fellows whereof appointed him junior reader of Linacer’s lecture in 1631, and superior reader in 1635. As he resolved to publish correct editions of the ancient astronomers, agreeably to the statutes of the founder of his professorship; in order to make himself acquainted with the discoveries of the Arabian astronomers, he began the study of the Arabic language when he was above 40 years of age. Some time before his death, he removed to a house opposite Merton college, where he died in 1643. His body was conveyed to the public schools, where an oration was pronounced in his praise by the university orator; and was carried from thence to Merton college church, where it was deposited near the altar. His published works are, 1. “An astronomical description of the late Comet, from the 18th of November 1618, to the 16th of December following,” London, 1619, 4to. This piece was only a specimen of a large work, which the author intended to publish in Latin, under the title of “Cometographia.” 2. “Procli sphæra. Ptolomæi de hypothesibus Planetarum liber singularis.” To which he added Ptolemy’s “Canon regnorum.” He collated these pieces with ancient manuscripts, and has given a Latin version of them, illustrated with figures, 1620, 4to. 3. “Canicularia; a treatise concerning the dog-star and the canicular days.” Published at Oxford in 1648, by Mr. Greaves, together with a demonstration of the heliacal rising of Sirius, or the dog-star, for the parallel of Lower Egypt. Dr. Bainbridge undertook this work at the request of archbishop Usher, but left it imperfect; being prevented by the breaking out of the civil war, or by death.

There were several dissertations of his prepared for and committed to the press the year after his death, but the edition of them was never completed. The titles of them are as follow[s]: 1. " Antiprognosticon, in quo manlixYis astrologicæ, cœlestium domorum, et triplicitatum commentis, magnisque Saturni et Jovis (cujusmodi anno 1623, et 1643, contigerunt, et vicesimo fere quoque deincips anno, ratis naturæ legibus, recurrent) conjunctionibus innixæ, vanitas breviter detegitur.“2.” De meridianorum sive Longitudinum differentlis inveniendis dissertatio.“3.” De stella Veneris diatriba." There were also some celestial observations of his, which may be seen in Ismael Bullialdus’s Astronomia Philolaica, published at Paris, in 1645.

Besides what we have mentioned, there are several other tracts which were never published, but left by his will to archbishop Usher; among whose manuscripts they are preserved in the library of the college of Dublin. Amongst others are the following, 1. A theory of the Sun. 2. A theory of the Moon. 3. A discourse concerning the Quantity of the Year. 4. Two volumes of Astronomical observations. 5. Nine or ten volumes of miscellaneous papers relating to the Mathematics. He undertook likewise a description of the British monarchy, in order to shew the advantages of the union of England and Scotland under one monarch; but this treatise was either lost or suppressed by him.

, was born at Melun, in the territory of Ath, in 1513. The emperor Charles V. made choice of him to be professor of divinity in the university of Louvain. He was afterwards chancellor of that body, guardian of its privileges, and inquisitor-general. The university, in concert with the king of Spain, elected him deputy to the council of Trent, whiere he acquired reputation. He had already published several small pieces, but was destined to be involved in controversy. Like the other followers of Augustin, he had an invincible aversion to that contentious, subtle, and intricate manner of teaching theology, that had long prevailed in the schools; and, under the auspicious name of that famous prelate, who was his darling guide, he had the courage to condemn, in an open and public manner, the tenets commonly received in the church of Rome, with respect to the natural powers of man, and the merit of good works.

This bold step drew upon Baius the indignation of some of his academical colleagues, and the heavy censures of several Franciscan monks. Whether the Jesuits immediately joined in this opposition, and may be reckoned among the first accusers of Baius, is a matter unknown, or at most, uncertain, but it is evident that, even at the rise of this controversy, they abhorred the principal tenets of Baius, which he had taken from Augustm, and adopted as his own. In 1567, he was accused at the court of Rome, and seventy-six propositions drawn from his writings, were condemned by pope Pius V. in a circular letter expressly composed for that purpose. The principal doctrines maintained in these propositions were, that unregenerate men have no ability to perform what is spiritually good, and that no man’s best works are meritorious of eternal life. The pope’s condemnation, however, was issued out in an artful and insidious manner, without any mention being made of the name of the author for the fatal consequences that had arisen from the rash and inconsiderate measures employed by the court of Rome against Luther, were too fresh in the remembrance of the prudent pontiff to permit his falling into new blunders of the same nature. The person and functions of Baius, therefore, were spared, while his tenets were censured. About thirteen years after this transaction, instigated by Tolet, the Jesuit doctor, Gregory XIII. confirmed the sentence, and again condemned the propositions. Dreading further severity, or more probably because his condemnation was vague and ambiguous, Baius submitted but others exclaimed against the papal decisions, as manifestly unjust. Baius’s doctrine was propagated with no inconsiderable zeal, in the flourishing universities of Douay and Louvaine. When the Jesuits Lessius and Hamelius attempted to preach a scheme of predestination, different from that of Augustin, the doctors of these universities condemned their opinions in 1587 and 1588. The bishops of the Low Countries prepared to do the same, but pope Sixtus V. suspended their proceedings, and by imposing silence on both parties, hushed the controversy. Even at this day, many“divin of the Romish communion, and particularly the Jansenists declare openly that Baius was unjustly treated, and that the two edicts of Pius and Gregory are absolutely destitute of all authority. He died the 16th of September 1589, at the age of 76. We have his controversial tracts against Maniix, 1579 and 1582, 2 vols. 8vo. His entire works were collected in 1696, in 4to, at Cologn, and the following year were prohibited by the pope. His style is greatly superior to that of the divines of his time, being simple and close. Baius had studied the fathers with such care, that it is affirmed he read St. Augustin over nine times a proof of his patience, if not of his judgment. Baius by his will founded a college for education. His nephew, James Baius, likewise doctor of Louvain, and who died in 1614, left behind him a tract on the Eucharist, printed at that city in 1605, 8 vo, and a catechism in folio, Cologn, 1620. The opinions of Michael Baius did not die with him. Cornelius Jansenius revived a great number of them in his book, entitled” Augustinus."

, an English Benedictine monk, and ecclesiastical historian and antiquary, the son of William Baker, gent, and nephew to Dr. David Lewes, judge of the admiralty, was born at Abergavenny, Dec. 9, 1575, and first educated at Christ’s hospital, London, whence he went to Oxford, in 1590, and became a commoner of Broadgate’s hall (now Pembroke college), which he left without a degree, and joined his brother Richard, a barrister of the middle temple, where he studied law, and in addition to the loose courses he followed, when at Oxford, now became a professed infidel. After the death of his brother, his father sent for him, and he was made recorder of Abergavenny, and practised with considerable success. While here, a miraculous escape from drowning recalled him to his senses as to religion, but probably having no proper advice at hand, he fell upon a course of Roman catholic writings, and was so captivated with them that he joined a small congregation of Benedictines then in London, and went with one of them to Italy, where, in 1605, he took the habit, and changed his name to Augustin Baker. A fit of sickness rendering it necessary to try his native air he returned to England, and finding his father oa his death-bed, reconciled him to the Catholic faith. From this time he appears to have resided in London and different places in the country, professing his religion as openly as could be done with safety. Some years before his death he spent at Canjbray, as spiritual director ‘of the English Benedictine nuns there, and employed his time in making collections for an English ecclesiastical historj’, in which, when at home, we are told, he was assisted by Camden, Cotton, Spelman, Selden, and bishop Godwin, to all of whom, Wood says, “he was most familiarly known,” but not, we presume, so sufficiently as this biographer supposes. Wood, indeed, tells us, that when at the house of gentlemen, he passed for a lawyer, a character which he supported in conversation by the knowledge he had acquired in the Temple. He died in Gray’s Inn lane Aug. 9, 1641, and was buried in St. Andrew’s church. He wrote a great many religious treatises, but none were published. They amounted to nine large folios in manuscript, and were long preserved in the English nunnery at Cambray. His six volumes of ecclesiastical history were lost, but out of them were taken father Reyner’s “Apostolatus Benedictinorum in Anglia,” and a good deal of Cressy’s “Church History.” Wood has given a prolix account of this man, which was probably one of those articles in his Athenee that brought upon him the suspicion of being himself attached to popery. It is certainly written with all the abject submission of credulity.

, an eminent physician, was the son of the Rev. George Baker, who died in 1743, being then archdeacon and registrar of Totness. He was born in 1722, educated at Eton, and was entered a scholar of King’s college, Cambridge, in July 1742, where he took his degree of B. A. 1745, and M. A. 1749. He then began the study of medicine, and took the degree of doctor in 1756. He first practised at Stamford, but afterwards settled in London, and soon arrived at very extensive practice and reputation, and the highest honours of his faculty, being appointed physician in ordinary to the Jking, and physician to the queen. He was also a fellow of the Royal and Antiquary Societies, created a baronet Aug. 26, 1776, and in 1797 was elected president of the College of Physicians, London. Besides that skill in his profession, and personal accomplishments, which introduced him into the first practice, and secured him a splendid fortune, he was a good classical scholar and critic, and his Latin works are allowed to be written in a chaste and elegant style. He died June 15, 1809, in his eighty-eighth year, after having passed this long life without any of the infirmities from which he had relieved thousands.

Sir George Baker, as an author, is to be estimated rather from the value than the'bulk of his works. His very extensive practice, while it enriched his own treasures of experience, left him little leisure for writing, and he never went beyond the extent of a tract or dissertation. Those he published were, 1. “De affectibus animi et morbis hide oriundis, dissertatio habita Cantabrigiae in scholis publicis, 5 kalend. Feb. 1755,” London, 1755, 4to. 2. “Oratio ex Harveii institute, habita in theatro coll. reg. Medicorum Lond. Oct. 19, 1761. Calci orationis accedit Commentarius quidam de Joanne Caio Anatomise conditore apud nostrates,” 4to, ib. 1761. This contains an elegant eulogy on Dr. Stephen Hales, and an argument to prove that Dr. Caius was the founder of anatomy in this country. Dr. Baker also adverts to Dr. Conyers Middleton’s essay on the servile condition of physicians in ancient Rome, which, he imagined, glanced at the honour of the profession itself. 3. “De Catarrho, et de Dysenteria Londinensi, epidemicis utrisque anno 1762, libellus,” 4to, ib. 1763. 4. “An Inquiry into the merits of a method of inoculating the Small Pox, which is now practised in several counties in England,” 8vo, ib. 1766. This produced two letters from Dr. Glasse, addressed to Dr. Baker, on the same subject. 5. “An essay concerning the cause of the Endemial Colic of Devonshire, which was read in the theatre of the College of Physicians, June 29, 1767,” printed at first for private distribution, but afterwards inserted in the Medical Transactions, vol. I. In this he derives the Devonshire colic from an impregnation of lead in the making of cyder, lead being very much used in the vessels employed in that operation. It was immediately followed by “Some observations on Dr. Baker’s Essay, by Francis Geach, surgeon at Plymouth,” 8vo, in which he endeavours to invalidate Dr. Baker’s theory, by proving that lead is not used in the preparation of cyder but this pamphlet was also immediately answered by Dr. Saunders, 8vo, and in 1769 Mr. Geach published “A Reply to Dr. Saunders’s pamphlet,” 8vo, and was supported by the Rev. Thomas Alcock in a pamphlet entitled, “The Endemical Colic of Devon not caused by a solution of lead in the cyder,” 1769, 8vo. At a considerable distance, in point of time, appeared “A candid examination of what has been advanced on the Colic of Poitouand Devonshire, by James Hardy, M.D. of Barnstaple, Devonshire,” 1778, 8vo. This writer, while inclined to agree with Drs. Baker and Saunders, as to the cholic arising from a solution of lead, wished to transfer the evil from the cyder- utensils to the drinking vessels, which are of glazed earthen ware, the vitreous coating of which contains a large proportion of lead but the argument is rather feebly supported. In 1771, Dr. Baker re-published the three first tracts, under the title of “Opuscula.” His other treatises were published in the Medical Transactions, vol. I. II. and III.

, an ingenious and diligent naturalist, the son of William Baker, a clerk in Chancery, was born in Chancery-lane, London, May 8, 1698. He was placed in 1713 with John Parker, whom he left in 1720, to reside for a few weeks with Mr. John Forster an attorney. Mr. Forster had a daughter of eight years old, who was born deaf and dumb. Mr. Baker, possessed with the idea that he could instruct her in reading, writing, and understanding what was spoken, made the attempt, and was so successful that her father retained him in his house for some years, during which he succeeded equally well with a second daughter who laboured under the same privation. He afterwards made this the employment of his life. In the prosecution of so valuable and difficult an undertaking, he was very successful. Among his pupils were the hon. Lewis Erskine, son of the late earl of Buchaii lady Mary, and lady Anne O'Brien, daughters of the earl of Inchiquin the earl of Sussex and his brother Mr. Yelverton the earl of Haddington, the earl of Londonderry, and many others. At the end of his instructions, he is said to have taken a bond for lOOl. of each scholar not to divulge his method, an instance of narrowness of mind which we wish we could contradict.

In April 1729, he married Sophia, youngest daughter of the famous Daniel Defoe, who brought him two sons, both of whom he survived. On the 29th of January 1740, Mr. Baker was elected a fellow of the society of antiquaries; and, on the 12th of March following, the same honour was conferred upon him by the royal society. In 1744, sir Godfrey Copley’s gold medal was bestowed upon him, for having, by his microscopical experiments on the crystallizations and configurations of saline particles, produced the most extraordinary discovery during that year. This medal was presented to him by sir Hans Sloane, thjen president of the royal society, and only surviving trustee of sir Godfrey Copley’s donation, at the recommendation of sir Hans’s worthy successor, Martin Folkes, esq. and of the council of the said society. Having led a very useful and honourable life, he died, at his apartments in the Strand, on the 25th of Nov. 1774, aged seventy-seven. His wife died in 1762; and he left only one grandson, William Baker, who was born Feb. 17, 1763, and to whom, on his living to the age of twenty-one, he bequeathed the bulk of his fortune, which he had acquired by his profession of teaching deaf and dumb persons to speak. This gentleman is now rector of Lyndon and South Luffenham, in the county of Rutland. He gave also by his will a hundred pounds to the royal society, the interest of which was to be applied in paying for an annual oration on natural history or experimental philosophy, now known by the name of the Bakerian oration. He gave to each of his two executors one hundred pounds and his wife’s gold watch and trinkets in trust to his daughter-in-law Mary Baker for her life, and to be afterwards given to the future wife of his grandson. To Mrs. Baker he gave also an annuity of fifty pounds. His furniture, printed books, curiosities, and collections of every sort, he directed should be sold, which was accordingly done. His manuscripts are in the possession of his grandson. His fine collection of native and foreign fossils, petrifactions, shells, corals, vegetables, ores, &c. with some antiquities and other curiosities, were sold by auction, March 13, 1775, and the nine following days, He was buried, as he desired, in an inexpensive mannef, in the church-yard of St. Mary le-Strand within which church, on the south wall, he ordered a small tablet to be erected to his memory, but owing to some particular regulations annexed to the new churches under the act of queen Anne, leave for this could not be obtained. “An inscription for it,” he said, “would probably be found among his papers if not, he hoped some learned friend would write one agreeably to truth.”

Mr. Baker was a constant and useful attendant at the meetings of the royal and antiquary societies, and in both was frequently chosen one of the council. He was peculiarly attentive to all the new improvements which were made in natural science, and very solicitous for the prosecution of them. Several of his communications are printed in the Philosophical Transactions and, besides the papers written by himself, he was the means, by his extensive correspondence, of conveying to the society the intelligence and observations of other inquisitive and philosophical men. His correspondence was not confined to his own country. To him we are obliged for a true history of the coccus polonicus, transmitted by Dr. Wolfe. It is to Mr. Baker’s communications that we owe the larger alpine strawberry, of late so much cultivated and approved of in England. The seeds of it were sent in a letter from professor Bruns of Turin to our philosopher, who gave them to several of his friends^ by whose care they furnished an abundant increase. The seeds likewise of the true rhubarb, or rheum palmatum, now to be met with in almost every garden in this country, were first transmitted to Mr. Baker by Dr. Mounsey, physician to the empress of Russia. These, like the former, were distributed to his various acquaintance, and some of the seeds vegetated very kindly. It is apprehended that all the plants of the rhubarb now in Great Britain were propagated from this source. Two or three of Mr. Baker’s papers, which relate to antiquities, may be found in the Philosophical Transactions. The society for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce, is under singular obligations to our worthy naturalist. As he was one of the earliest members of it, so he contributed in no small degree to its rise and establishment. At its first institution, he officiated for some time gratis, as secretary. He was many years chairman ^of the committee of accounts and he took an active part in the general deliberations of the society. In his attendance he was almost unfailing, and there were few questions of any moment upon which he did not deliver his opinion. Though, fronl the lowness of his voice, his manner of speaking was not powerful, it was clear, sensible, and convincing; what he said, being usually much to the purpose, and always proceeding from the best intentions, had often the good effect of contributing to bring the society to rational determinations, when many of the members seemed to have lost themselves in the intricacies of debate. He drew up a short account of the original of this society, and of the concern he himself had in forming it; which was read before the society of antiquaries, and would be a pleasing present to the public. Mr*. Baker was a poetical writer in the early part of his life. His “Invocation of Health” got abroad without his knowledge; but was reprinted by himself in his “Original Poems, serious and humourous,” Part the first, 8vo, 1725. The second part came out iri 1726. He was the author, likewise, of “The Universe^ a poem, intended to restrain the pride of man,” which has been several times reprinted. His account of the water polype, which was originally published in the Philosophical Transactions, was afterwards enlarged into a separate treatise, and hath gone through several editions. In 1728 he began, and for five years conducted the “Universal Spectator,” a periodical paper, under the assumed name of Henry Stonecastle a selection of these papers was afterwards printed in 4 vols. 12mo. In 1737 he published “Medulla Poetarum Romanorum,” 2 vols. 8vo, a selection from the Roman poets, with translations. But his principal publications are, “The Microscope made easy,” and “Employment for the Microscope.” The first of these, which was originally published in 1742, or 1743, has gone through six editions. The second edition of the other, which, to say the least of it, is equally pleasing and instructive, appearedin 1764. These treatises, and especially the latter, contain the most curious and important of the observations and experiments which Mr. Baker either laid before the royal society, or published separately. It has been said of Mr. Baker, “that he was a philosopher in little things.” If it was intended by this language to lessen his reputation, there is no propriety in the stricture. He was an intelligent, upright and benevolent man, much respected by those who knew him best. His friends were the friends of science and virtue and it will always be remembered by his contemporaries, that no one was more ready than himself to assist those with whom he was conversant in their various researches and endeavours for the advancement of knowledge and the benefit of society. His eldest son, David Erskine Baker, was a young man of genius and learning, and, like his father, a philosopher, an antiquary, and a poet. Being very partial to mathematical and geometrical studies, the duke of Montague, then master of the ordnance, placed him in the drawing-room in the Tower, to qualify him for the royal engineers. In a letter to Dr. Doddridge, dated 1747, his father speaks of him in these terms: “He has been somewhat forwarder than boys usually are, from a constant conversation with men. At twelve years old he had translated the whole twenty-four books of Telemachus from the French before he was fifteen, he translated from the Italian, and published, a treatise on physic, of Dr. Cocchi, of Florence, concerning the diet and doctrines of Pythagoras and last year, before he was seventeen, he likewise published a treatise of sir Isaac Newton’s Metaphysics, compared with those of Dr. Leibnitz, from the French of M. Voltaire. He is a pretty good master of the Latin, understands some Greek, is reckoned no bad mathematician for his years, and knows a great deal of natural history, both from reading and observation, so that, by the grace of God, I hope he will become a virtuous and useful man.” In another letter he mentions a singular commission given to his son, that of making drawings of all the machines, designs, and operations employed in the grand fire- works to be exhibited on occasion of the peace of 1748. It is to be regretted, however, that his father’s expectations were disappointed by a reverse of conduct in this son, occasioned by his turn for dramatic performances, and his marrying the daughter of a Mr. Clendon, a clerical empiric, who had, like himself, a similar turn. In consequence of this unhappy taste, he repeatedly engaged with the lowest strolling companies, in spite of every effort of his father to reclaim him. The public was, however, indebted to him for “The Companion to the Playhouse,” 1764, 2 vols. 12mo; a work which, though imperfect, had considerable merit, and shewed that he possessed a very extensive knowledge of our dramatic authors and which has since (under the title of “Biographia Dramatica”) been considerably improved, first in 1782, by the late Mr. Isaac Reed, 2 vols. 8vo, and more recently, in 1812, enlarged and improved by Mr. Stephen Jones, so as to form 4 vols. 8vo. He died Feb. 16, 1767. Mr. Baker’s other son, Henry, followed the profession of a lawyer, and occasionally appeared as a poet and miscellaneous writer. In 1756 he published te Essays Pastoral and Elegiac,“2 vols. 8vo, and left ready for the press an arranged collection of all the statutes relating to bankruptcy, with cases, precedents, &c. entitled” The Clerk to the Commission," a work which is supposed to have been published under another title in 1768.

, a statesman of some note in the reigns of Henry VIII. Edward VI. and Mary, is said to have been the son of Thomas Baker, a Kentish gentleman, but his pedigree in the' college of arms begins with his own name. He was bred to the profession of the laws, and in 1526, when a young man, was sent ambassador to Denmark, in company with Henry Standish, bishop of St. Asaph, according to the fashion of those times, when it was usual to join in foreign negociations, the only two characters which modern policy excludes from such services. At his return he was elected speaker of the house of commons, and was soon after appointed attorney-general, and sworn of the privy council, but gained no farther preferment till 1545, when, having recommended himself to the king by his activity in forwarding a loan in London, and other imposts, he was made chancellor of the exchequer. Henry constituted him an assistant trustee for the minor successor, after whose accession his name is scarcely mentioned in history, except in one instance, which ought not to be forgotten he was the only privy counsellor who steadfastly denied his assent to the last will of that prince, by which Mary and Elizabeth were excluded from inheriting the crown. Sir John married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Thomas Dinely, and widow of George Barret, who brought him two sons sir Richard (whose grandson was created a baronet) and John and three daughters Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Scott; Cecily, married to the lord treasurer Dorset, and Mary to John Tufton, of Heathfield in Kent. He died in 1558, and was bu ied at Sissingherst in Kent, where he had a fine estate, formerly belonging to the family of De Berham; and a noble mansion built by himself, called Sissingherst Castle, which remained with his posterity till the family became extinct about sixty years since, and has since bowed down its battlements to the unfeeling taste of the present day.

, grandson of the preceding, and son of John, the youngest son of sir John Baker by Catherine daughter of sir Reynold Scot of Scot’s hall in Kent, was born at Sissingherst in Kent, about the year 1568. In 1584, he was entered a commoner at Hart-hall in Oxford, where he remained three years, which he spent chiefly in the study of logic and philosophy. From thence he removed to one of the inns of court in London, and afterwards travelled abroad, in order to complete his education. In 1594, he was created master of arts at Oxford and in May 1603, received the honour of knighthood from James I. at Theobalds. In 1620, he was high-sheriff of Oxfordshire, having the manor of Middle-Aston and other estates in that county, and was also in the commission of the peace. He married Margaret, daughter of sir George Manwaring, of Ightfield in Shropshire, knight and having become surety for some of that family’s debts, was thereby reduced to poverty, and thrown into the Fleet prison, where he died Feb. 18, 1645, and was buried in St. Bride’s church, Fleet-street. He was a person tall and comely (says Mr. Wood), of a good disposition and admirable discourse, religious, and well-read in various faculties, especially in divinity and history, as appears from the books he composed.

His principal work was, his “Chronicle of the kings of England, from the time of the Romans’ government unto the death of king James,” Lond. 1641, fol. again in 1653, and 1658, to which last was added, the reign of Charles I. with a continuation to 1658, by Edward Phillips, nephew to the illustrious Milton. The fourth edition of 1665 has a continuation to the coronation of Charles II. The account of the restoration was principally written by sir Thomas Clarges, although adopted by Phillips. It was most severely criticised by Thomas Blount, in his “Animadversions upon sir Richard Baker’s Chronicle and its continuation,” and many errors are unquestionably pointed out, but it became a popular book, and a common piece of furniture in every ’squire’s hall in the country, for which it was not ill calculated by its easy style and variety of matter, and continued to be reprinted until 1733, when another edition appeared with a continuation to the end of the reign of George I. but still with many errors, although perhaps not of much importance to the “plain folks” who delight in the book. This is called by the booksellers the best edition, and has lately been advancing in price, but they are not aware that many curious papers, printed in the former editions, are omitted in this. The late worthy and learned Daines Barrington gives the most favourable opinion of the Chronicle. “Baker is by no means so contemptible a writer as he is generally supposed to be it is believed that the ridicule on this Chronicle arises from its being part of the furniture of sir Roger de Coverley’s hall” in one of the Spectators. Sir Richard’s own opinion probably recommended it to many readers he says that “it is collected with so great care and diligence, that if all other of our chronicles were lost, this only would be sufficient to inform posterity of all passages memorable, or worthy to be known.” He wrote also several other works 1. “Cato Variegatus, or Cato’s Moral Distichs varied; in verse,” Loud. 1636. 2. “Meditations and Disquisitions on the Lord’s Prayer,” Lond. 1637, 4to. The fourth edition of it was published in 1640, 4to. It was highly praised by sir Henry Wotton, who had studied with him in Hart-hall. 3. “Meditations and disquisitions on the three last Psalms of David,” Lond. 1639. 4. “Meditations and disquisitions on the fiftieth Psalm,” Lond. 1639. 5. “Meditations and disquisitions on the seven penitential Psalms, which are, 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143,” Lond. 1639, 4to. 6. “Meditations and disquisitions on the first Psalm,” Lond. 1640, 4to. 7. “Meditations and disquisitions on the 'seven consolatory Psalms of David, namely, 23, 27, 30, 34, 84, 103, and 116,” Lond. 1640, 4to. 8. “Meditations and prayers upon the seven clays of the week,” Lond. 1640, 16 mo, which is supposed to be the same with his Motive of Prayer on the seven days of the week. 9. “Apology for Laymen’s writing in Divinity,” Lond. 1641, 12mo. 10. “Short meditations on the fall of Lucifer,” printed with the Apology. 11. “A soliloquy of the Soul, or a pillar of thoughts, &c.” Lond. 1641, 12mo. 12. “Theatrum lledivivun), or the Theatre vindicated, in answer to Mr. Pryone’s Histrio-mastrix, &c.” Lond. 1662, 8vo. 13. “Theatrum triumphans, or a discourse of Plays,” Lond. 1760, 8vo. 14. He translated from Italian into English, the marquis Virgilio Malvezzi’s Discourses on Tacitus, being 53 in number, Lond. 1642, fol. And from French into English, the three first parts of the “Letters of Monsieur Balzac,” printed at London, 1638, 8vo, and again in 1654, 4to, with additions, and also in 8vo. The fourth and last part seem to have been done by another hand the preface to it being subscribed F. B. Sir Richard wrote also his own life, and left it in manuscript but it was destroyed by one Smith, who married one of his daughters.

, an eminent mathematician in the seventeenth century, the son of James Baker of Ikon in Somersetshire, steward to the family of the Strangways of Dorsetshire, was born at Ikon about the year 1625, and entered in Magdalen-hall, Oxon, in the beginning of the year 1640. In April 1645, he was elected scholar of Wadham college and did some little servicb to king Charles I. within the garrison of Oxford. He was admitted bachelor of arts, April 10, 1647, but left the university without completing that degree by determination. Afterwards he became vicar of Bishop’s-Nymmet in Devonshire, where he lived many years in studious retirement, applying chiefly to the study of the mathematics, in which he made very great progress. But in his obscure neighbourhood, he was neither known, nor sufficiently valued for his skill in that useful branch of knowledge, till he published his famous book. A little before his death, the members of the royal society sent him some mathematical queries to which he returned so satisfactory an answer, that they gave him a medal with an inscription full of honour and respect. He died at Bishop’s-Nymmet aforementioned, on the 5th of June 1690, and was buried in his own church. His book was entitled “The Geometrical Key, or the Gate of Equations unlocked, or a new Discovery of the construction of all Equations, howsoever affected, not exceeding the fourth degree, viz. of Linears, Quadratics, Cubics, Biquadratics, and the rinding of all their roots, as well false as true, without the use of Mesolahe, Trisection of Angles, without Reduction, Depression, or any other previous Preparations of Equations, by a Circle, and any (and that one only) Farabole, &c.” London, 1684, 4to, in Latin and English. In the Philosophical Transactions, it is observed, that the author, in order to free us of the trouble of preparing the equation by taking away the second term, shews us how to construct all affected equations, not exceeding the fourth power, by the intersection of a circle and parabola, without omission or change of any terms. And a circle and a parabola being the most simple, it follows, that the way which our author has chosen is the best. In the book (to render it intelligible even to those who have read no conies), the author shews, how a parabola arises from the section of a cone, then bow to describe it in piano, and from that construction demonstrates, that the squares of the ordinates are one to another, as the correspondent sagitta or intercepted diameters then he shews, that if a line be inscribed in a parabola perpendicular to any diameter, a rectangle made of the segments of the inscript, will be equal to a rectangle rr.ade of the intercepted diameter and parameter of the axis. From this last propriety our author deduces the universality of his central rule for the solution of ai! 2 biquadratic and cubic equations, however affected or varied in terms or signs. After the synthesis the author shews the analysis or method, by which he found this rule which, in the opinion of Dr. R. Plot (who was then secretary to the royal society) is so good, that nothing can be expected more easy, simple, or universal.

, a very ingenious and learned antiquary, was descended from a family ancient and wellesteemed, distinguished by its loyalty and affection for the crown. His grandfather, sir George Baker, knt. to whom our author erected a monument in the great church at Hull, almost ruined his family by his exertions for Charles I. Being recorder of Newcastle, he kept that town, 1639, against the Scots (as they themselves wrote to the parliament) with a “noble opposition.” He borrowed large sums upon his own credit, and sent the money to the king, or laid it out in his service. His father was George Baker, esq. of Crook, in the parish of Lanchester, in the county of Durham, who married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Forster of Edderston, in the county of Northumberland, csq. Mr. Baker was born at Crook, September 14, 1656. He was educated at the free-school at Durham, under Mr. Battersby, many years master, and thence removed with his elder brother George, to St. John’s college, Cambridge, and admitted, the former as pensioner, the latter as fellow-commoner, under the tuition of Mr. Sanderson, July 9, 1674. He proceeded, B. A. 1677; M. A. 1681; was elected fellow, March 1680; ordained deacon by bishop Compton of London, December 20, 1685; priest by bishop Barlow of Lincoln, December 19, 1686. Dr. Watson, tutor of the college, who was nominated, but not yet consecrated, bishop of St. David’s, offered to take him for his chaplain, which he declined, probably on the prospect of a like offer from Crew, lord bishop of Durham, which he soon after accepted. His lordship collated him to the rectory of Long- Newton in his diocese, and the same county, June 1687; and, as Dr. Grey was informed by some of the bishop’s family, intended to have given him that of Sedgefieid, worth six or seven hundred pounds ayear, with a golden prebend, had he not incurred his displeasure, and left his family, for refusing to read king James the Second’s declaration for liberty of conscience. Mr. Baker himself gives the following account of this affair: “When the king’s declaration was appointed to be read, the most condescending thing the bishop ever did was coming to my chambers (remote from his) to prevail with me to read it in his chapel at Auckland, which I could not do, having wrote to my curate not to read it at my living at Long-Newton. But he did prevail with the curate at Auckland to read it in his church, when the bishop was present to countenance the performance. When all was over, the bishop (as penance I presume) ordered me to go to the dean to require him to make a return to court of the names of all such as did not read it, which I did, though I was one of the number.” But this bishop, who disgraced Mr. Baker for this refusal, and was excepted out of king William’s pardon, took the oaths to that king, and kept his bishopric till his death. Mr. Baker resigned Long-Newton August 1, 1690, refusing to take the oaths; and retired to his fellowship at St. John’s, in which he was protected till January 20, 1717, when, with one-and-twenty others, he was dispossessed of it. This hurt him most of all, not for the profit he received from it but that some whom he thought his sincerest friends came so readily into the new measures. particularly Dr. Robert Jenkin the master, who wrote a defence of the profession of Dr. Lake, bishop of Chichester, concerning the new oaths and passive obedience, and resigned his precentorship of Chichester, and vicarage of Waterbeach, in the county of Cambridge. Mr. Baker could not persuade himself but he might have shewn the same indulgence to his scruples on that occasion, as he had done before while himself was of that way of thinking. Of all his sufferings none therefore gave him so much uneasiness. In a letter from Dr. Jenkin, addressed to Mr. Baker, fellow of St. John’s, he made the following remark on the superscription “I was so then I little thought it should be by him that I am now no fellow; but God is just, and I am a sinner.” After the passing the registering act, 1723, he was desired to register his annuity of forty pounds, which the last act required before it was amended and explained. Though this annuity left him by his father for his fortune, with twenty pounds per annum out of his collieries by his elder brother from the day of his death, August 1699, for the remaining part of the lease, which determined at Whitsuntide 1723, was now his whole subsistence, he could not be prevailed on to secure himself against the act, but wrote thus in answer to his friend “I thank you for your kind concern for me; and yet I was very well apprized of the late act, but do not think it worth while at this age, and under these infirmities, to give myself and friends so much trouble about it. I do not think that any living besides myself knows surely that my annuity is charged upon any part of my cousin Baker’s estate or if they do, I can hardly believe that any one, for so poor and uncertain a reward, will turn informer or if any one be found so poorly mean and base, I am so much acquainted with the hardships of the world, that I can bear it. I doubt not I shall live under the severest treatment of my enemies or, if I cannot live, I am sure I shall die, and that’s comfort enough to me. If a conveyance will secure us against the act, I am willing to make such a conveyance to them, not fraudulent or in trust, but in as full and absolute a manner as words can make it and if that shall be thought good security, I desire you will have such a conveyance drawn and sent me by the post, and I'll sign it and leave it with any friend you shall appoint till it can be sent to you.” He retained a lively resentment of his deprivations and wrote himself in all his books, as well as in those which he gave to the college library, “socius ejectus,” and in some “ejectus rector.” He continued to reside in the college as commoner-master till his death, which happened July 2, 1740, of a paralytic stroke, being found on the floor of his chamber. In the afternoon of June 29, being alone in his chamber, he was struck with a slight apoplectic fit, which abating a little, he recovered his senses, and knew all about him, who were his nephew Burton, Drs. Bedford and Heberden. He seemed perfectly satisfied and resigned and when Dr. Bedford desired him to take some medicine then ordered, he declined it, saying, he would only take his usual sustenance, which his bedmaker knew the times and quantities of giving he was thankful for the affection and care his friends shewed him, but, hoping the time of his dissolution was at hand, would by no means endeavour to retard it. His disorder increased, and the third day from this seizure he departed. He was buried in St. John’s outer chapel, near the monument of Mr. Ash ton, who founded his fellowship. No memorial has yet been erected over him, he having forbidden it in his will. Being appointed one of the executors of his elder brother’s will, by which a large sum was bequeathed to pious uses, he prevailed on the other two executors, who were his other brother Francis and the hon. Charles Montague, to layout 1310l. of the money upon an estate to be settled upon St. John’s college for six exhibitioners. Mr. Masters gives a singular instance f his unbiassed integrity in the disposal of these exhibitions. His friend Mr. Williams, rector of Doddington, had applied to Mr. Baker for one of them for his son, and received the following answer

“Worthy sir, I can assure you I am not alone in the disposal of these exhibitions, nor is it any qualification by the settlement to be the son of a clergyman. In the disposal of them I have commonly had regard to those that want them most, and I thank God that is not your son’s case. But I will do him that right to say, he wants no other qualifications,” &c.

Mr. Baker likewise gave the college lOOl. for the consideration of six pounds a-year (then legal interest) for his life and to the library several choice books, both printed and ms. medals, and coins besides what he left to it by his will which were “all such books, printed and ms. as he had, and were wanting there.” All that Mr. Baker printed was, 1. “Reflections on Learning, shewing the insufficiency thereof in its several particulars, in order to evince the usefulness and necessity of Revelation, London, 1710,” which went through eight editions; and Mr. Boswell, in his “Method of Study,” ranks it among the English classics for purity of style; a character perhaps too high, yet it is a very ingenious work, and was at one time one of the most popular books in our language. Its principal fault is, that the author has too much depreciated human learning, and is not always conclusive in his arguments. 2. “The preface to bishop Fisher’s funeral sermon for Margaret countess of Richmond and Derby, 1708” both without his name. Dr. Grey had the original ms. of both in his own hands. The latter piece is a sufficient specimen of the editor’s skill in antiquities to make us regret that he did not live to publish his “History of St. John’s college, from the foundation of old St. John’s house to the present time; with some occasional and incidental account of the affairs of the university, and of such private colleges as held communication or intercourse with the old house or college collected principally from Mss. and carlied on through a succession of masters to the end of bishop Gunning’s mastership, 1670.” The original, fit for the press, is among the Harleian Mss. No. 7028. His ms collections relative to the history and antiquities of the university of Cambridge, amounting to thirty-nine volumes in folio, and three in 4to, are divided between the British Museum and thfe public library at Cambridge the former possesses twenty-three volumes, which he bequeathed to the earl of Oxford, his friend and patron the latter sixteen, in folio, and three in 4to, which he bequeathed to the university. Dr. Knight styles him “the greatest master of the antiquities of this our university;” and Hearne says, “Optandum est ut sua quoqn^ collectanea de antiquitatibus Cantabrigiensibus juris taciat publici cl. Bakerus, quippe qui eruditione summa judicioque acri et subacto polleat.” Mr. Baker intended something like an Athenae Cantabrigienses on the plan oLthe Athenae Oxonienses. Had he lived to have completed his design, it would have far exceeded that work. With the application and industry of Mr. Wood, Mr. Baker united a penetrating judgment and a great correctness of style, and these improvements of the mind were crowned with those amiable qualities of the heart, candour and integrity. He is very frequently mentioned by the writers of his time, and always with high respect. Although firm in his principles, he corresponded with and assisted men of opposite ways of thinking, and with the utmost readiness made them welcome to his collections. Among his contemporaries who distinguished themselves in the same walk with himself, and derived assistance from him, may be reckoned Mr. Hearne, Dr. Knight, Dr. John Smith, Hilkiah Bedford, Browne Willis, Mr. Strype, Mr. Peck, Mr. Ames, Dr. Middleton, and professor Ward. Two large volumes of his letters to the first of these antiquaries are in the Bodleian library. There is an indifferent print of him by Simon from a xnemoriter picture but a very good likeness of him by C. Bridges. Vertue was privately engaged to draw his picture by stealth. Dr. Grey had his picture, of which Mr. Burton had a copy by Mr. Ilitz. The Society of Antiquaries have another portrait of him. It was his custom, in every book he had, or read, to write observations and an account of the author. Of these a considerable number are at St. John’s college, and several in the Bodleian library, among Dr. Rawiinson’s bequests. A fair transcript of his select ms observations on Dr. Drake’s edition of archbishop Parker, 1729, was some time ago in the hands of Mr. Nichols. Dr. John Bedford of Durham had Mr. Baker’s copy of the “Hereditary Right,” greatly enriched by him. Dr. Grey, who was advised with about the disposal of the books, had his copy of Spelman’s Glossary. Mr. Crow married a sister of Mr. Baker’s nephew, Burton; and, on Burton’s death intestate in the autumn after his uncle, became possessed of every thing. What few papers of Mr. Baker’s were among them, he let Mr. Smith of Burnhall see and they being thought of no account, were destroyed, excepting the deed concerning the exhibitions at St. John’s, his own copy of the historyof the college, notes on the foundress’s funeral sermon, and the deed drawn for creating him chaplain to bishop Crew, in the month and year of the revolution, the day left blank, and the deed unsubscribed by the bishop, as if rejected by him.

, a learned printer, son of Mr. William Baker, a man of amiable character and manners, of great classical and mathematical learning, and more than forty years master of an academy at Reading, was born in 1742. Being from his infancy of a studious turn, he passed so much of his time in his father’s library as to injure his health. His father, however, intended to have sent him to the university, but a disappointment in a patron who had promised to support him, induced him to place him as an apprentice with Mr. Kippax, a printer, in Cullum- street, London, where, while he diligently applied to business, he employed his leisure hours in study, and applied what money he could earn to the purchase of the best editions of the classics, which collection, at his death, was purchased by Dr. Lettsom. This constant application, however, to business and study, again 'endangered his health, but by the aid of country air and medicine he recovered and on the death of Mr. Kippax he succeeded to his business, and removed afterwards to Ingram court, where he had for his partner Mr. John William Galabin, now principal bridgemaster of the city of London. Among his acquaintance were some of great eminence in letters Dr. Goldsmith, Dr. Edmund Barker, the Rev. James Merrick, Hugh Farmer, Caesar de Missy, and others. An elegant correspondence between him and Mr. Robinson, author of the “Indices Tres,” printed at Oxford, 1772, and some letters of inquiry into difficulties in the Greek language, which still exist, are proofs of his great erudition, and the opinion entertained of him by some of the first scholars. Such was his modesty, that many among his oldest and most familiar acquaintance were ignorant of his learning, and where learning was discussed, his opinion could never be known without an absolute appeal to his judgment. There are but two little works known to be his; 1. “Peregrinations of the Mind through the most general and interesting subjects which are usually agitated in life, by the Rationalist,” 12mo, 1770, a collection of unconnected essays, not, as hie biographer says, in the manner of the Rambler, but somewhat in the manner of a periodical paper. 2. “Theses GrifcciE et Latince selectse,” 8vo, 1780, a selection from Greek and Latin authors. He left behind him some manuscript remarks on the abuse of grammatical propriety in the English language in common conversation. He wrote also a few minor poems, which appeared in the magazines, and is said to have assisted some of his clerical friends with sermons of his composition. la the Greek, Latin, French, and Italian languages, he was critically skilled, and some knowledge of the Hebrew. He died after a lingering illness, Sept. 29, 1785, and was interred in the vault of St. Dionis Backchurch, Fenchurch-street, and an elegant Latin epitaph to his memory was placed on the tomb of his family in the church-yard of St. Mary, Reading, by his brother John.

, the most successful and celebrated experimental farmer ever known in England, was born at Dishley in Leicestershire, about 1725 or 1726. His grandfather and father had resided on the same estate since the beginning of the last century; and his father, who died about the year 1760, had the reputation of being a very ingenious farmer. Mr. Bakewell having conducted the Dishley farm several years before the decease of his father, began about fifty -five years ago, that course of experiments which has procured him such extensive fame. He originally adopted a principle, a priori, which was confirmed by the whole experience of his future life. Having remarked that domestic animals, in general, produced others possessing qualities nearly similar to their own, he conceived he had only to select from the most valuable breeds such as promised to return the greatest possible emolument to the breeder; and that he should then be able, by careful attention to progressive improvements, to produce a race of sheep, or other animals, possessing a maximum of advantage. Under the influence of this excellent notion, Mr. Bakewell made excursions into different parts of England, to inspect the various breeds, and to ascertain those which were best adapted to his purposes, and the most valuable 0f their kinds.

His next step was to select and purchase the best of all the sorts wherever they could be found and this selection, the result of several years experience, was the original stock from which he afterwards propagated his own. This excellent ground- work was alone fostered to its present unrivalled perfection by the persevering ingenuity and industry of Mr. Bakewell. About the year 1760, Mr. Bakewell sold his sheep, by private contract, at not more than two or three guineas each. Some time after he began to let some of his rams, and for a few seasons received only fifteen shillings and a guinea a-piece for them but as the fame of his breed extended itself, he advanced his prices, and by the year 1770 was enabled to let some of his rams for the season for twenty-five guineas. Since that time the prices and credit of his stock have been progressively increasing and of late years single rams have been let for the season for the enormous price of four hundred guineas and upwards. It is a fact which has no former example, that one ram, called the Two Pounder, produced in one season the sum of eight hundred guineas, independent of ewes of Mr. Bakewell' s own stock, which, at the same rate, would have made a total the produce of a single ram of twelve hundred guineas!

Every branch of the agricultural art is more or less indebted to the fortunate genius and original mind of Mr. Bakewell. He directed his attention however the most successfully to the improvement of the sheep known by the name of the Dishley or New Leicestershire to long-horned cattle, and to strong horses of the black breed, suitable to the harness for the army. The improvement of pigs, and the cultivation of the best winter food for cattle, had latterly engaged his attention; and he had proved himself useful to the public by introducing into practice the flooding of meadows. The race of Dishley sheep are known by the fineness of their bones and flesh, the lightness of the offal, the disposition to quietness, and consequently to mature and fatten with less food than other sheep of equal weight and value. Mr. Bakewell improved his black horses by an. attention to the form which is best adapted to their use. His stallions have been let for the season for one hundred guineas and upwards. About ten years since he exhibited his famous black horse to the king and many of the nobility in the court-yard of St. James’s. His long-horned cattle have been characterised by properties similar to those of his sheep, viz. for the fineness of the bone and flesh, the lightness of the offal, and the disposition to fatten. In a word, no competitor ever had the temerity to vie with him in his horses and cattle and his sheep continue universally unrivalled, notwithstanding the competition excited at various times by motives of interest or envy.

In this place it may be worth while to insert the following statement of the prices given at two leading auctions for stock bred from Mr. Bakewell’s. These great prices, as well as the prices which these articles always maintain, are the most indubitable proofs of the high opinion which the best and most interested judges entertain of Mr. Batewell’s merit.

The first sale which we advert to was that of Mr. Fowler of Rollwright, in Oxfordshire. This gentleman had commenced his breeding-speculations with a couple of cows and a bull which he hired of Mr. Bakewell. After his death, one article of his live stock, the horned cattle, sold for a value equal to that of the fee simple of his farm Fifteen head alone of bulls and cows sold for 2464l. or at the rate of 164l. each!

The other auction was that of Mr. Paget, at Ibstock. Mr. Paget had been many years the intimate friend, and in the Breeding Society, a very eminent and successful colleague, of Mr. Bakewell. The sale of his stock was therefore looked up to with much eagerness by the public. At this sale, one bull sold for the sum of four hundred guineas (and a sixth share of the same has since been sold for one hundred), and a two-year old heifer for eighty- four! Two hundred and eleven ewes and theaves fetched 3315 guineas —on the average, seventeen guineas each; and one lot of five ewes was sold for 310 guineas!

Mr. Bakewell, at the time of his death, was verging on his seventieth year. As he had never been married, his business devolved to Mr. Honeyborn, his nephew, a gentleman possessed of genius and enterprise similar to that of his predecessor. In person Mr. Bakewell was tall, broad set, and, in his latter years, rather inclined to corpulence. His countenance bespoke intelligence, activity, and a high degree of benevolence his manners were frank and pleasing, and well calculated to maintain the extensive popularity he had acquired. His domestic arrangements at Dishley were formed on a scale of hospitality to strangers, that gained him universal esteem of the numerous vistants induced by curiosity to call at his house, none ever left it without having reason to extol the liberality of its owner. Many interesting anecdotes are related of his humanity towards the various orders of animals he continually deprecated the atrocious barbarities practised by butchers and drovers; shewing, by example on his own farm, the most pleasing instances of docility in the animals under his care. He departed this life on Thursday, October 1, 1795, after a tedious illness, which he bore with the philosophical fortitude that ever distinguished his character.

, of Sicily, was physician to pope Leo X. who had a high esteem for him. He was no less skilled in the belles lettres than in medicine and cultivated poetry and Greek with much success. He translated, from the Greek into Latin, several pieces of Galen; which were first printed separately, and afterwards inserted in the works of that ancient physician, published at Venice in 1586, in folio. He flourished at Rome about the year 1555.

, a Genoese Dominican, named also Janua or Januensis, composed, in the thirteenth century, Commentaries, and several >ther works. His “Catholicon, seu Summa Grammaticalis,” was printed at Mentz, 1460, folio, by Fust and Schceffer. He entitled it Catholicon, or Universal, because it is not a simple vocabulary, but a kind of classical encyclopaedia, containing a grammar, a body of rhetoric, and a dictionary. Notwithstanding that this book is badly digested, yet it was much wanted in the time of Balbi. A surprising number of copies were printed of it and it was one of the first books on which the art of printing was employed. It is very dear, and said to be very scarce, but the Diet. Hist, speaks of thirtysix copies being in existence. It was reprinted at Augsburgh, in 1469, fol. also a very rare book. This John Balbi is to be distinguished from Jerom Balbo, bishop of Goritz, who died at Venice in 1535, author of the following works: 1. “De rebus Turcicis,” Rome, 1526, 4to. 2. “De civili et beliica Fortitudine,” 1526, 4to. 3. “De futuris Caroli V. successibus,” Bologna, 1529, 4to. 4. “Carmina,” in the “Deliciae Poetarum Italorum,” and in 1792, Retzer published the whole under the title “Opera Poetica, Oratoria, ac Poetica-moralia,” Vienna, 2 vols. 8vo.

, a Spanish poet, was bishop of St. John in Porto Rico, in North America, to which he was appointed in 1620. He was a native of Valdepeguas, a village in the diocese of Toledo, took his doctor’s degree at Salamanca, from whence he was sent to America, and had the charge of judicature in Jamaica, and then was made bishop of Porto Rico. He was there when in 1625 it was plundered by the Dutch, who carried away his library. He died in 1627. He is reputed to be one of the first poets Spain has produced, although one of the least known. His productions are, a heroic poem, printed at Madrid, 4to, in 1624, entitled “El Bernardo, 6 Victoria de Roncesvalles;” ten eclogues, entitled “Siecle d‘or dans les bois d’Eriphile,” Madrid, 8vo, 1608; and a work in prose and verse, on “the grandeur of Mexico,” printed at the same place, 1604, 8vo. Antonio censures the age very severely for having neglected the writings of Bernard, in which he discovers great majesty and elevation of verse, a prolific invention, a pleasing variety, and a style not inferior in purity to that of any writer of the present age. His comparisons are just, and his descriptions rich and elegant, and lively beyond all the Spanish poets.

, an eminent German poet, was born at Ensisheim, in Alsace, in the year 1603. He entered the order of Jesuits in 1624, and after bestowing several years on the study of theology and the languages, became a preacher of note, even at the court of Bavaria. He was requested to write the history of Bavaria, and Leibnitz says he saw some parts of the performance but such was his attachment to the muses, that his history suffered many interruptions, while he gratified with eagerness those friends who asked him for poetical pieces. He died at Nieubourg, Aug. 9, 1663. His works are, 1. “Carmen panegyricum Henrico Ottoni Fuggero vellere aureo donate,” Augs. 1629. 2. “Francisco Andrew, comiti de Tilly, geniale ac praesagum carmen,” Ingold. 1631, 8vo. 3. “Maximilianus primus Austriacus,” Ingold. 1631, and Munich, 1639. This work is in prose and verse, and contains the history of Maximilian the First. 4. “Epithalamion Maximiliano Boiarioe duci et Marise Austriacae,” Munich, 1635. 5. “Hecatombe de vanitate mundi,” Munich, 1636, 8vo, in German and Latin. 6. “Poema de vanitate mundi,” Munich, 1638, 16mo, and 1651, 12mo. 7. “Batrachomyomachia Homeri, tuba Romana cantata, et in libros V distributa.” 8. “Interpretatio Homeric! poematis oratione soluta.” 9. “Usus Batrachomyomachix ethicus, politicus, et polemicus,” Ingold. 1637, and 1647, 12mo. 10. “Templum honoris apertum virtute Ferdinand! III. Austriaci, regis Romanorum,” Ingold. 1637, 8vo. 11. “Agathyrsus; encomii etbiGorum,” in Anacreontic verse, Munich, 1638, 24mo. 12. “Ode Parthenia, sive de laudibus beatae Mariae Virginis,” in German, Munich, 1638 and 1647. 13. “Olympia sacra in stadio Mariano, sive certamen poeticum de laudibus beatse Mariae Virginis super ode Parthenia Germairica,” Cologne. 14. “Lyricorum lib. IV. Epodon lib. I.” Munich, 1643, but a more correct and complete edition was published by Bleau at Amsterdam, which has, however, Cologne in the*title, 1646, 12mo. 15. “Sylvae Lyricae,” Munich, 1648, 12rao. Cologne (i.e. Amsterdam, Bleau), 12mo. 16. “Medicinas gloria per Satyras XXII. asserta prcemittitur hymnus in laudem sanctorum Cosmae etDamiani.” 17. “Vultuosae torvitavis encomium, in gratiam philosophorum et poetarum explication, cum dissertatione de studio poetico.” 18. “Satyra contra abusnm tabaci.” 19. “Antagathyrsus, apologia pro pinguibus,” in heroic verse, Munich, 1643 and, 1651, 12mo. 20. “Poesis osca, sive drama Georgicum, in quo belli mala, pacis bona carmine antique, aetellano, osco, casco,” Munich, 1647, 4to. 21. “Chorea mortalis, sive Lessus in obitu augustissimae imperatrices Leopoldinae, Caesari Fernandino III. nuptae an. 1648, in puerperio mortuae anno 1649,” Munich, 1649, Latin and German. 22. “Jephtias, tragcedia,” Amberg, 1654, 8vo. 23. “Eleonorae Magdalenae Theresiae Neoburgicae genethliacon,” Nieubourg, 1655. 24. “Musae Neoburgicae in ortum J. G. J. Ignatii ducis Neoburgici,” Nieubourg, 1658. 25. “Paraphrasis lyrica in Philomelam sancti Bonaventurae.” 26. “Poematum tomi IV.” 1660, 12mo, an incorrect collection of odes, epodes, and lyric pieces. 27. “Solatium podagricorum,” Munich, 1661, 12mo. 28. et De eclipsi solari anno 1654, die 12 Augusti a pluribus spectata tubo optico, iterum a Jacobo Balbe tubo satyrico perlustrata lib. duo,“Munich, 1662, 12mo. 29.” Urania victrix, sive animse Christianae certamina adversus illecebras quinque sensuum corporis sui,“Munich, 1663, 8vo. This work, which is in elegiac verse, gave so much pleasure to pope Alexander VII. that he sent the author a gold medal, a very considerable mark of regard from one who was himself a good Latin poet. 30.” Paean Parthenius, sive hymnus in honorem S. Ursulas et sociarum martyrum,“Cologne, 1663, 8vo. 31.” Expeditio polemico-poetica sive castrum ignorantise, a poetis veteribus ac novis obsessum, expugnatum, eversum.“32.” Apparatus novarutn inventionum et thematum scribendorum," Munich, 1694, 12mo. who object to the style and taste of some of his works, allow that if he had not written too rapidly, he might have attained great excellence and reputation.

, a French historian, a native of Orleans, according to some writers, or of Mehun, a small town on the Loire, according to others, -flourished in the twelfth century. He was abbé of Bourgueil, in 1089, bishop of Dol, in Britanny, in 1114, and 1115 he received the pallium from pope Paschal II. at the council of Rheims. About the year 1095, he had assisted at the council of Clermont, held upon account of the holy war, of which he wrote a history in four books, from its commencement to the taking of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Boulogne in 1099. He wrote also various works of the historical kind in verse and prose, with the life of Robert D'Abrissel, founder of the order of Fontevraud. Michael Cosnier, curate of Poitiers, published an edition of this life, with very curious notes and Du Chesne has printed Balderic’s poems in the fourth volume of his collection of French writers. Balderic is said to have died Jan. 7, 1131, but this does not agree with his epitaph, which says that he was bishop of Dol twenty-two years, to which, as mentioned above, he was appointed in 1114.

, born at Urbino in the year 1553, was made abbot of Guastalla in 1586, without any solicitation of his own. He began his studies with the mechanics of Aristotle, and a course of history he had also made verses but, on being appointed abbot, he applied himself entirely to the canon law, the fathers, the councils, and to the oriental languages. He died in 1617, with the reputation of a very laborious man, who understood sixteen several languages. We have by him a great number of tracts on mechanics, as “De tormentis bellicis et eorum inventoribus;” “Commentaria in mechanica Aristotelis,” 1582. “De Verborum Vitruvianorum significatione.” “Novæ Gnomonices, lib. V.” 1595. “Vitæ Mathematicorum, &c.” Some of these are to be seen in the Vitruvius of Amsterdam, 1649, folio. “Versi e Prose,” Venice, 1690, 4to. Crescembini put his fables into Italian verse, Rome, 1702, 12mo. He had begun an historical and geographical description of the world, in all its parts; but he did not live to finish this great undertaking.

, a celebrated lawyer of the fourteenth century, was a native of Perugia, and the son of Francis Ubaldi, a learned physician, who had him educated with great care. After studying philosophy and belles lettres, he became the pupil of Bartolus in law studies, and afterwards was his powerful rival. He taught law himself at Perugia, where he had for his scholar cardinal Peter Beaufort, afterwards pope Gregory XI. He next became professor at Padua, from which the duke of Milan invited him to the same office at Pavia. He died April 28, 1400, aged 76, of the consequences of the bite of a favourite cat, a circumstance thus expressed on his epitaph:

His contemporaries differ very much, not only in regard to his personal character, but the merit of his works. He composed several treatises on civil law a commentary on the Decretals, Venice, 1595, and a consultation on the right of Urban VI. and Clement VII. printed by Reynaldus at the end of his seventeenth volume of Annals.

, an eminent German physician, was born at Erfurt, May 18, 1738. During the seven years’ war, he had the direction of the military hospital belonging to the Prussian army, and after the conclusion of peace, the landgrave of Hesse Cassel appointed him his first physician. He was afterwards professor of medicine at Gottingen and Marpurg, where he died Jan. 2, 1804. He wrote very copiously on the subject of his profession 1. “A treatise on the Diseases of the Army,” 1774, 8vo. 2. A species of periodical work or “Magazine for Physicians,” 3 vols. 1779 1799. 3. “Sylloge opusculorum selectorum argument! medicopract.” 4to, Gottingen, 1776 1782, and some other works; and he edited an edition in German, of Boerner’s lives of physicians.

, an Italian count, and a man of learning, was a native of Placentia, where he was born July 3, 1654. After studying philosophy and the classics in the college of St. Francis Xavier at Bologna, he went to Rome, and passed through a course of theology, law, and mathematics. He was so pleased with Rome as to determine to take up his abode there and when the pope offered him the‘ place of nuncio at Brussels, and in Poland, he preferred a life of literary employment. Some time after, however, he accompanied cardinal d’Estrees to Paris, and the marchioness of Montecuculi to St. Germain and afterwards went to Poland, to be present at the election of a successor to king John Sobieski, then deceased. In 1698, duke Francis, of Parma, sent him to Madrid, as his deputy; and in 1710 Sophia Dorothy duchess of Placentia employed him in the same honourable office at Vienna, and at several courts in Germany, England, and Utrecht. On his return, he passed the rest of his life in a retired manner, and died Feb. 23, 1725. When in England he was elected a member of the royal society, with M. Bianchini. His rich cabinet of natural history, and his extensive library, were always open to men of learning, many of whom he assisted in their pursuits with great liberality. We know of none of his writings, except a discourse on the maps in the Atlas Historique, published at Amsterdam in 1719.

, a learned Italian antiquary and philosopher, was born at Brescia in 1677, and died at Tivoli in 1765. He entered early into the congregation of the regular clerks, and arrived at their highest dignities. His works, all in ItaHan, were, 1. “Sopra le forze moventi.” 2. “Relazione dell' Aurora Boreale, veduta in Roma,” 1737, both inserted in “Calogerae opusculis philologis.” 3. “Dissertazione sopra certi Vasetti di creta trovati in una camera sepolcrale nella Vigna di S. Cesario, in Roma.” 4. “Dissertazione sopra un‘ antica piastra di bronzo, che si suppone un’ Orologie da sole:” these two are inserted in “Saggi de Dissertation! di Cortona,” vol. II. and III. He published an edition of Vaillant’s Numismata Imp. Romanorum, Rome, 1743, 4to, to which Khella published a supplement in 1767, Vienna. He was also author of remarks on Anastasius Bibliothecarius’s lives of the popes.

, of Florence, an useful biographer of the academy of la Crusca, was born in 1624. Having acquired great knowledge in painting and sculpture, and made many discoveries by studying the works of the best masters, he was qualified to gratify cardinal Leopold of Tuscany, who desired to have a complete history of painters. Baldinucci remounted as far as to Cimabue, the restorer of painting among the moderns and he designed to come down to the painters of the last age inclusive. He only lived to execute part of his plan, which was published in his life-time, in 3 vols. After his death (in 1696), three more appeared, and a new edition of the whole in ^1731. The work, without being free from errors, is a valuable addition to Vasari. He published also, in Italian, a “Treatise on Engraving, and the lives of the principal Engravers,” 1686, 4to.

, Baldi, or Baldius, a native of Florence, in the seventeenth century, was a very eminent physician and medical writer. He was reader on medicine in the university of Rome, where he held a canon’s place, and acquired the first reputation throughout Italy. His great ambition was to be physician to pope Innocent X. which he had no sooner obtained than he contracted a distemper which proved fatal a few months after his promotion. None of his biographers give the date of his death (probably about 164. ), but all attribute it to the luxurious change in the mode of living at court. He published many works which bear a high character, and among others: 1. “Praelectio de Contagione pestifera,” Rome, 1631, 4to. 2. “Disquisitio iatrophysica de Aere,” Rome, 1637, 4to, 3. “De loco affecto in pleuritide disceptationes,” Paris, 1640, 8vo Rome, 1643, &c.

, an Italian poet, was born at Florence, in 1654. His first studies were devoted to the law, which his father wished him to pursue as a profession but, after the death of his parents, he gave himself wholly up to the enchantments of poetry and music. On visiting Rome, he obtained, through the interest of his uncle cardinal Flavio Chigi, the place of secretary to cardinal Jacopo Filippo, and in that city, at the age of forty, he entered into holy orders. In 1676, he obtained the living of St. Leonardo d'Artimino and in 1694, Cosmo III. grand duke of Tuscany, conferred on him the priorship of Orbatello; which, in 1699, he changed for that of Santa Felicita. In the discharge of his new functions, he gave equal satisfaction to the court, the religious orders, and his parishioners, by his exemplary piety, and his rigid attention to the duties of his station to which the amiableness of his manners, his knowledge of the world, and his proficiency in learning, rendered him perfectly adequate. He died in 1716. His chief work is a poem of the pastoral kind, entitled “II Lamento de Cecco da Varlungo,” written in the provincial dialect of Tuscany, and in his youth; and published in 1694, by Bartolommei, to whom the author had given the manuscript. It was reprinted in 1755, with the author’s life by Manni, and curious notes by Marini. In 1800, it was introduced into our language by John Hunter, esq. under the title of “Cecco’s Complaint,” 8vo, from the preface to which this sketch is taken.

, bishop of London in the reigns of Edward I. and II. was educated at Merton college in Oxford, became archdeacon of Middlesex, and, in 1294, dean of St. Paul’s. The see of London being vacant by the death of Richard de Gravesend, Baldock was unanimously chosen, Sept. 20, 1304. But, his election being controverted, he was obliged to repair to Rome and, having obtained the pope’s confirmation, was consecrated at Lyons by Peter Hispanus, cardinal of Alba, Jan. 30, 1306. Being returned into England, he made profession of canonical obedience to the archbishop in the church of Canterbury, March 22, 1306. The same year he was appointed by the pope one of the commissioners for the examination of the articles alleged against the knights templars, and in that year also he was made lord high chancellor of England but Edward I. dying soon after, he held that post little more than a year. Dec. 2, 1308, this prelate, with the approbation of the chapter, settled a stipend on the chancellor of St. Paul’s for reading lectures in divinity in that church, according to a constitution of his predecessor, Richard de Gravesend. He contributed 200 marks towards building the chapel of St. Mary, on the east side of St. Paul’s. He founded also a chantry of two priests in the said church, near the altar of St. Erkenwald. He was a person of a very amiable character, both for morals and learning, and deserved well of his country by his writings, which were, 1. “Historia Anglica, or a history of the British affairs down to his own time.” It is not now extant, though Leland says he saw it at London. 2. “A collection of the statutes and constitutions of the church of St. Paul’s,” extant in the library of that cathedral in 1559. Bishop Balclock died at Stepney, July 24, 1313, having sat from his consecration a little more than seven years, and was buried under a marble monument in the chapel of St. Mary.

, a celebrated Italian poet of the seventeenth century, was distinguished in his youth for his attachment to polite literature, and some verses of acknowledged excellence. He was a native of Palermo, and on account of his talents, very early admitted into the academy of the Reaccensi, but his confined circumstances obliged him to leave his native country in pursuit of better fortune. He went first, for a short time, to Naples, and thence to Rome, where he entered into the army, and served in Hungary in the papal army under the command of John Francis Aldobrandini. He returned afterwards to Rome, and having resumed his studies, was received with great honour into the academy of the Humourists. Here his poetry, his anacreontics, and particularly the encomiastic verses he wrote on the distinguished persons of the court of pope Urban VIII. procured him fame, and might have enriched him, if he had not been deficient in the article of ceconomy, which some of his biographers ascribe to his extravagance, and others to his charity. It is certain, however, that he became poor, and was obliged to enter into the service of some gentlemen in the capacity of secretary, but either from feeling the miseries of dependarpce, or from an unsettled turn, he very frequently changed his masters. Erythraeus relates many stories of the manner in which he shifted for subsistence, which are not much to his credit, but the veracity of Erythneus on this as well as many other occasions, has been called in question by contemporary biographers of good authority, and whatever truth may be in his account, we do not find that Balducci lost the esteem of the learned at Rome. At length he took prders, and officiated as chaplain in the hospital of St. Sixte, but having afterwards been attacked by an illness at the house of a nobleman, who had a high regard for him, and would have administered to all his wants, he caused himself to be removed to the hospital of St. John Latran, where he died in 1642, or according to Crescembini, either in 1645 or 1649. His works were, 1. “Tributo di Parnasso alia Maesta Cesareo di Ferdinando III. d' Austria,” Rome, 1638, 4to. 2. “La Pace Urbana,” Naples, 1632, 4to. 3. “Poesie degli Accademici Fantastici di Roma,” Rome, 1637. 4. “Rime, parte prima,” Rome, 1630, 1645, 12mo. 5. “Rime, parte seconda,” Rome, 1646. All these were collected, and twice published at Venice, 1655 and 1663, 12mo. He also wrote some “Canzoni Siciliane,” and prefaces to part of the works of his friend Stigliani.

, archbishop of Canterbury in the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I. was born of obscure parents at Exeter, where he received a liberal education, and in his younger years taught school. Afterwards, entering into holy orders, he was made archdeacon of Exeter; but soon quitting that dignity and the world, he took the habit of the Cistertian order in the monastery of Ford in Devonshire, and in a few years became its abbot. From thence he was promoted to the see of Worcester (not Winchester, as Dupin says), and consecrated August 10, 1180. Upon the death of Richard, archbishop of Canterbury in 1184, he was translated to that see, with some difficulty, being the first of his order in England, that was ever advanced to the archiepiscopal dignity. He was enthroned at Canterbury the 19th of May 1185, and the same day received the pall from pope Lucius III. whose successor Urban III. appointed him his legate for the diocese of Canterbury. Soon after he was settled in his see, he began to build a church and monastery at Hackington, near Canterbury, in honour of St. Thomas Becket, for the reception of secular priests but, being violently opposed by the monks of Canterbury, supported by the pope’s authority, he was obliged to desist. The 3d of September 1189, he solemnly performed the ceremony of crowning king Richard I. at Westminster. The same year, the king having given the see of York to his bastard brother Geoffry bishop of Lincoln, archbishop Baldwin took this occasion to assert the pre-eminence of the see of Canterbury,' forbidding the bishops of England to receive consecration from any other than the archbishop of Canterbury. The next year, designing to follow king Richard to the Holy Land, he made a progress into Wales, where he performed mass pontifically in all the cathedral churches, and induced several of the Welsh to join the crusade. Afterwards embarking at Dover, with Hubert bishop of Salisbury, he arrived at the king’s army in Syria where being seized with a mortal distemper, he died at the siege of Acre, or Ptolemais, and was buried there. Giraldus Cambrensis, who accompanied this prelate, both in his progress through Wales and in his expedition to the Hgly Land, tells us, he was of a dark complexion, an open and pleasing aspect, a middling stature, and a spare, but healthful, constitution of body modest and sober, of great abstinence, of few words, and not easily provoked to anger. The only fault he charges him with is a remissness in the execution of his pastoral office, arising from an innate lenity of temper whence pope Urban III. in a letter addressed to our archbishop, began thus, “Urban, &c. to the most fervent monk, warm abbot, lukewarm bishop, and remiss archbishop” intimating, that he behaved better as a monk than as an abbot, and as a bishop than as an archbishop. His principal works were, 1. “Of the Sacrament of the Altar.” 2. “Faith recommended.” 3. “Of Orthodox Opinions. 4.” Of Heretical Sects.“5.” Of the Unity of Charity.“6.” Of Love.“7.” Of the Priesthood of John Hircanus.“8.” Of the Learning of Giraldus.“9.” Thirty-three Sermons.“10.” Concerning the Histories of Kings.“11.” Against Henry bishop of Winchester.“12.” In praise of Virginity.“13.” Concerning the Message of the Angel.“14.” Of the Gross.“15.” Concerning Mythology.“16.” A Devotionary Poem.“17.” Letters," These were collected and published by Bertrand Tissier, in 1662.

, according to Wood, was born in the west of England, and spent several years at Oxford in the study of logic and philosophy there he supposes him to have been the same William Baldwin, who supplicated the congregation of regents for a master’s degree in 1532, but it does not appear by the register that it was granted. He afterwards became a schoolmaster and a minister, and was one of those scholars who followed printing, in order to promote the reformation. In this character, we find him employed by Edward Whitchurch, probably as the corrector of the press, though he modestly styles himself “seruaunt with Edwarde Whitchurche.” This, however, seems to have been his employment at first, and chiefly: yet he afterwards appears to have qualified himself for a compositor. As an author, Bale and Pits ascribe some comedies to him, which were probably mysteries or moralities now unknown, but he compiled “A treatise of moral Philosophy,” which was printed by Edw. Whitchurch, in 1547, and in 1550, and without date. This was afterwards enlarged by Thomas Paifryman, and went through several editions. His next performance was “The Canticles or Balades of Solomon, phraselyke declared in English metres,” printed by himself, 1549, 4to. He wrote also “The Funeralles of king Edward VI.” in verse, printed in 1560, 4to. But he is perhaps best known now by the share he had in the publication of “The Mirror of Magistrates,” originally projected by Thomas Sackville, first lord Buckhurst, and afterwards earl, of Dorset, who wrote the poetical preface, and the legend of Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, and recommended the completion of the whole to our William Baldwin and George Ferrers. The time of his death is not specified, but he appears to have lived some years after the accession of queen Elizabeth.

, in Latin Baleus or Balæus, bishop of Ossory in Ireland, about the middle of the sixteenth century, was born the 21st of November 1495, at Cove, a small village in Suffolk, near Dunwich. His parents, whose names were Henry and Margaret, being incumbered with a large family, young Bale was entered, at twelve years of age, in the monastery of Carmelites at Norwich, and from thence was sent to Jesus college in Cambridge. He was educated in the Romish religion but afterwards, at the instigation of the lord Wentworth, turned Protestant, and gave a proof of his having renounced one of the errors of popery (the celibacy of the clergy) by immediately marrying his wife Dorothy. This, as may be conjectured, exposed him to the persecution of the Romish clergy, against whom he was protected by lord Cromwell, favourite of king Henry VIII. But, on Cromwell’s death, Bale was forced to retire into the LowCountries, where he resided eight years; during which, time he wrote several pieces in English. He was then recalled into England by king Edward VI. and obtained the living of Bishop’s Stocke in the county of Southampton. The 15th of August 1552, he was nominated by king Edward, who happened to be at Southampton, to the see of Ossory. This promotion he appears to have owed to his accidentally waiting on his majesty to pay his respects to him. Edward, who had been told he was dead, expressed his surprize and satisfaction at seeing him alive, and immediately appointed him to the bishopric, which he refused at first, alleging his poverty, age, and want of health. The king, however, would not admit of these excuses, and Bale set off for Dublin, where Feb. 2, 1553, he was consecrated by the archbishop. On this occasion, when he found that it was become a question whether the common prayer published in England should be used, he positively refused to be consecrated according to the old popish form, and remaining inflexible, the new form was used. He underwent, however, a variety of persecutions from the popish party in Ireland, and all his endeavours to reform the people and priesthood in his diocese, and to introduce the reformed religion, were not only frustrated by the death of Edward VI. and the accession of queen Mary, but in the mean time exasperated the savage fury of his enemies so much, that he found it necessary to withdraw from his see, and remain concealed in Dublin. Afterwards, endeavouring to make his escape in a small trading vessel in that port, he was taken prisoner by the captain of a Dutch man of war, who rifled him of all his money, apparel, and effects. This ship was driven by stress of weather into St. Ives in Cornwall, where our prelate was taken up on suspicion of treason, but was soon discharged. From thence, after a cruize of several days, the ship arrived in Dover road, where he was again in danger by a false accusation. Arriving afterwards in Holland, he was kept a prisoner three weeks, and then obtained his liberty on the payment of thirty pounds. From Holland he retired to Basil in Switzerland and continued abroad during the short reigu of queen Mary. On the accession of queen Elizabeth, he returned to England, but not to his bishopric in Ireland, contenting himself with a prebend in the cathedral church of Canterbury, to which he was promoted the 15th of January, 1560. He died Nov. 1563, in the 68th year of his age, at Canterbury, and was buried in the cathedral of that place.

Bishop Bale’s fame now principally rests on his valuable collection of British biography, which was first published, under the title of “lllustrium Majoris Britanniae scriptorum, hoc est, Anglic, Cambriae et Scotia?, Summarium,” Ipswich, 1549, 4to, containing only five centuries of writers. To these he added afterwards four more centuries, with many additions and improvements on the first edition, the whole printed in a large folio, at Basil, by Oporinus, 1559. The title is greatly enlarged, and informs us, that the writers, whose lives are there treated of, are those of the Greater Britain, namely, England and Scotland that the work commences from Japhet, one of the sons of Noah, and is carried down through a series of 3618 years, to the year of our Lord 1557, at which time the author was an exile for religion in Germany that it is collected from a great variety of authors, as Berosus, Gennadius, Bede, Honorius, Boston of Bury, Fruaientarius, Capgrave, Bostius, BureU lus, Trithemius, Gesner, and our great antiquary John Leland that it consists of nine centuries, comprises the antiquity, origin, annals, places, successes, the more remarkable actions, sayings, and writings of each author; in all which a due regard is had to chronology the whole with this particular view, that the actions of the reprobate as well as the elect ministers of the church may historically and aptly correspond with the mysteries described in the Revelation, the stars, angels, horses, trumpets, thunder ­ings, heads, horns, mountains, vials, and plagues, through every age of the same church. There are appendixes to many of the articles, and an account of such actions of the contemporary popes as are omitted by their flatterers, Cargulanus, Platina, &c. together with the actions of the monks, particularly those of the mendicant order, who (he says) are meant by the locusts in the Revelation, ch. ix. ver. 3 and 7. To these Appendixes is added a perpetual succession both of the holy fathers and the antichrists of the church, with curious instances from the histories of various nations and countries in order to expose their adulteries, debaucheries, strifes, seditions, sects, deceits, poisonings, murders, treasons, and innumerable impostures. The book is dedicated to Otho Henry, prince palatine of the Rhine, duke of both the Bavarias, and elector of the Roman empire and the epistle dedicatory is dated from Basil in September, 1557. Afterwards^ in 1559, appeared a continuation of the workj with the addition of five more centuries (which the editors of the Biog. Brit, call a new edition). His other works are divided by Fuller into two parts, those he wrote when a papist, and those when a protestant: but Fuller’s list containing only the subjects of his works, and not the titles or dates, we shall prefer the following list from Ames and Herbert; premising, that, according to Fox, in his Acts and Monuments, Bale wrote some books under the name of John “Harrison. He was the sou of Henry Bale, and on that account, perhaps, took the name of Harrison l.” The Actes of Englysh Votaries, comprehending their unchast practyses and examples by all ages > from the world’s beginning to this present year, collected out of their own legendes and chronicles, 8vo, 1546> 1548, 1551, and 1560. 2. “Yet a course at the Homy she Fox,” by John Harrison, i. e. Bale, Zurich, 1543. From this was published the “Declaration of William Tolwyn,” London, date uncertain, Ames says 1542, which must be a mistake. 3. “The Apology of JohanBale agaynste a ranke Papyst, answering both hym and hys doctours, that neyther their vowes nor yet their pricsthotic are of the gospel, but of Antichrist;” with this, “A brefe exposycion upon, the xxx chapter of Numeri,” London, 15,50, 8vo. 4. “An Expostulation or Coinplaynt, agaynste the blasphemy es of a frantic Papyst of Hamshyrc,” with metrical versions ef the 23d and 130th Psalms,“London, 1552, and 1584, 8vo. 5.” The Image of both Churches, after the most wonderiul and heavenly Revelation of Sainct John the Evangelist, contayning a very fruitefull exposicion or paraphrase upon the same,“first, second, and third parts, London, 1550, and 1584, 8vo. 6. A brefe Chronicle concerning the examination and death of the blessed Martir of Christ, Sir Johan Oldecastle, Lord Cobham,” 1544 and 1576, 8vo, reprinted also in 1729. 7. “The vocacyon of Johan Bale to the Bishoprick of Ossorie in Ireland, his persecucions in the same, and final deliveraunce,” London, 1553, 8vo. Herbert mentions two editions in the same year. 8. “A Declaration of Edmonde Bonner’s Articles, concerning the Cleargye of London Dyocese, whereby that execrable amychriste is in his righte colours reueled in the year of our Lord 1554. Newlye set fourth and allowed,” London, 1561, 8vo. 9, “The Pageant of Popes, containing the lyves of all the bishops of Rome from the beginninge of them to the yeare of grace 1555, London, 4to, 1574. This is a translation from Bale’s Latin edition, by J. S. i. e. John Stu'dley. 10.” A new Comedy or Interlude, concerning the Laws of Nature, Moises, and Christ,“London, 1562, 4to. This was written in 1532, and first printed in the time of Edward VI. 11.” A Tragedie or Enterlucle, manifesting the chief promises of God unto man, by all ages in the olde lawe, from the fall of Adam to the incarnation,“London, 1577, 4to. 12.” A Mystereye of Inyquyte contayned within the heretycall genealogye of Ponce Pantolabus, is here both dysclosed and confuted,“Geneva, 1545, 16mo. 13.” The First Examination of the worthy servaunt of God Mastres Anne Askew,“Marpurg, 1546, 16mo, and the” Lattre Examinacion“of the same, ibid. 1547. 14.” A brife and fay th full declaration of the true Faith in Christ,“1547, IGmo. Mr. Herbert conjectures this to be Bale’s. The initials only of the author are given. 15.” The laboryouse journey and serche of Johan Leylande, for En glandes Antiquitees, &c.“London, 1549, 16mo, reprinted in the Life of Leland (with those of Wood and Hearne) 1772, and followed there by a memoir of Bale. 16.” The confession -of the synner after the sacred scriptures, 1549, 8vo. 17. “A Dialogue or Communycacyon to be had at a table between two chyldren gathered out of the Holy Scriptures, by John Bale for his two yonge sonnes, Johan acid Paule,” London, 1549. He also translated, l.“Bapt. Mantuanus’s treatise on Death,” London, 1584, 8vo. 2. “The true hystorie of the Christen departynge of the reverend man D. Martyne Luther, &c.” 1546, 8vo. 3. “A godly Medytacyon of the Christen Soule, from the French of Margaret queen of Navarre,” London, probably, 1548, 5vo. Tanner has given a list of his Mss. and where preserved. These printed works are now rarely to be met with, and many of them, particularly his dramatic pieces, may be consigned to oblivion without much regret. The “Acts of. the English Votaries,” and other pieces written against the Papists, are best known, although censured for their intemperance and partiality. The character, indeed, of few writers has been more variously represented., Gesner, in his Bibliotheca, calls him a writer of the greatest diligence, and bishop Godwin gives him the character of a laborious inquirer into British antiquities. Similar praise is bestowed on him by Humphrey in his “Vaticinium de Koma,” and by Vogler in his “Introduct. Universal, in notit. Scriptor.” who also excuses his asperity against the Papists, from what England had suffered from them, and adds, that even the popish writers cannot help praising his great biographical work. On the other hand, bishop Montague, Andreas Valerius, and Vossius, while they allow his merit as a writer, object to his warmth and partiality. Pitts, his successor in British biography, and a bigotted Papist, rails against him without mercy, or decency, but may be forgiven on account of the pains he took to give us a more correct book, or at least, what could be alleged on the other side of the question. Even Fuller imputes intemperance of mind to him, and calls him “Biliosus Balseus,” imputing his not being made a bishop, on his return, by queen Elizabeth, to this cause but it is equally probable, that he had conceived some prejudices against the hierarchy, while residing with the Geneva reformers abroad. We know this was the case with Coverdale, a man of less equivocal character. Wharton, in his “Anglia Sacra,” and Nicolson, in his “Historical Library,” censure those errors which in Bale were either unavoidable, or wilful, in dates, titles of books,- and needlessly multiplying the latter. After all these objections, it will not appear surprising that Bale’s work was speedily inserted among the prohibited books, in the Index Expurgatorius. Such a writer was naturally to be forbidden, as an enemy to the see of Rome. From one accusation, the late Dr. Pegge has amply defended him in his “Anonymiana” It was said that after he had transcribed the titles of the volumes of English writers which fell into his hands, he either burnt them or tore them to pieces. This calumny was first pub^ lished by Struvius in his “Acta Literaria,” upon the authority of Barthius. Upon the whole, with every deduction that can be made from his great work, it must ever be considered as the foundation of English biography, and as such, men of all parties have been glad to consult it, although with the caution necessary in all works written in times of great animosity of sentiment, and political and religious controversy.

, born at Aries in 1719, was son of a button-seller, and died suddenly at Avignon in the month of August 1765. He made himself famous by his engravings, which obtained him a place in the academy of painting at Paris. He had acquired a peculiar manner of engraving, which gave a mellowness and delicacy to his works. When he would, he united the nice finishing of Edelink and Naiiteuil, with the bold strokes of Mellau. His principal pieces are “Les belles marines,” which he engraved from M. Vernet, and the portrait of Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony and king of Poland. This portrait, a master-piece of engraving, was the fatal cause of all his misfortunes, of his exclusion from the academy, and of his forced retreat to Avignon. It was by order of the dauphiness that he had executed this portrait; and he took proof-impressions of it, contrary to the express promise he had given to that princess. It is at the head of the fine collection of the Dresden gallery. The talents of Balechou were not confined to engraving. He had a taste and some skill in chymistry, which he had studied to a certain extent. It is even not improbable, that a chymical remedy, of which he either took too strong a close, or at an improper time, might contribute not a little to his sudden and premature death.

Strutt says of this engraver, that although the clearness of his strokes, and the depth of colour which he produced, are far beyond any production prior to his own, yet he did not draw well, and on this account his prints want that freedom, correctness and harmony, which a perfect knowledge of drawing generally produces. With all their beauty, they appear heavy and the flesh is not sufficiently distinguished, by the style of engraving, from the other parts of the figure but has a cold silvery effect. This observation must be supposed to refer only to his figures. The two large plates (above mentioned) which he did from Vernet, one representing a storm, the other a calm, must ever be considered as very astonishing exertions of the artist. These are too well known, and too much admired, to need any farther culogium and were never equalled, until they were surpassed by a countryman of ours (YVoollett). Let any one look at the Niobe, the Ceyx and Alcyone, &c. from Wilson, and a very moderate share of judgment will be necessary to turn the balance in favour of the latter.

, an artist, was born at Antwerp, in 15GO, and was a disciple of Adam Van Oort; but he quitted that master, to acquire a better taste of design and composition, by pursuing his studies at Rome, where he resided for a considerable time. He copied the antiques, he attended to the works of the most memorable modern artists and at his return to his own country, the visible improvement of his taste recommended him to the favour and esteem of the ablest judges of the art. He distinguished himself by a good manner of designing, and his works are admitted into the cabinets of the curious, among those of the principal painters. He particularly excelled in the naked, and gave to his figures truth, roundness, and correctness of outline. Several fine portraits of his hand are at the Hague among which there is one adorned with allegorical figures of Widom and Justice. All the historical subjects painted by Van Balen have merit. His designs of the Deluge, of Moses striking the Rock, and the drowning of Pharaoh, are grand and noble compositions. Houbraken observes, that Van Balen, with great judgment, hath introduced the Israelites in a clear light in the back ground, but the Egyptians in a strong shadow in the fore ground, which had a very fine effect the figures being well designed, the attitudes and draperies well chosen, and the number of the figures being very considerable. Of this master’s hand also the Judgment of Paris is accounted a masterly performance in which the figure of Venus is so elegantly designed, so full of life, and so round, that it seems to stand forth from the surface. The landscapes and back grounds of the pictures composed by Van Balen, were generally painted by the Velvet Brueghel. Van Balen was the first master of Vandyck. He died in 1672. His son, John Van Balen, was born at Antwerp, in 1611, and derived his knowledge of the art, and his fine taste of drawing and design, from his father but, as soon as he had made a competent progress, he travelled to Rome, and lived for several years in that and other cities of Italy. There he acquired a good taste for design, though he was sometimes incorrect his particular merit was shewn in naked figures of boys, cupidfi, nymphs bathing or hunting, of which subjects he painted a considerable number, and he procured both praise and riches by his landscapes and histories. His pictures were well handled, his trees touched wiih spirit, and his herbage and verdure looked natural and lively. The carnations of his figures were clear and fresh, his colouring in general was transparent, and the airs of his heads were in the manner of Albano.

, the most famous master in the art of penmanship, and all its relative branches, of his time, in our country, was born in 1547. Anthony Wood says he was a most dextrous person in his profession, to the great wonder of scholars and others, and adds, “That he spent several years in sciences among the Oxonians, particularly, as it seems, in Gloucester hall but that study which he used for a diversion only, proved at length an employment of profit.” It seems probable, however, that he resided at that university to teach his own art, for profit. The earliest account we have of his skill, mentions a micrographical performance, in which the writing was so wonderfully small, yet so very legible, that it surprised all who saw it, and advanced his name into Holinshed’s Chronicle. This delicate specimen of his art is also thus celebrated by Mr. Evelyn. “Adrian Junius speaks of that person as a miracle (F. Alumnus), who wrote the apostles’ creed, and beginning of St. John’s gospel, in the compass of a farthing. What would he have thought of our famous Bales, who, in 1557, wrote the Lord’s prayer, creed, decalogue, with two short Latin prayers, his own name, motto, day of the month, year of our Lord, and of the queen’s reign, to whom he presented it at Hampton court, all within the circle of a single penny, enchased in a ring and border of gold, and covered with crystal, so nicely wrote as to be plainly legible, to the admiration of her majesty, her privy council, and several ambassadors who then saw it.” He wasalso skilled in other excellencies of the pen, which seem to have recommended him to employment, upon certain particular emergencies, under the secretary of state, about 1586, when the conspiracies of Mary queen of Scots with the Popish faction were discovered. And as sir Francis Walsingham had other able instruments to unveil the disguised correspondence which passed between them, he had also need of some one who was expert in the imitation of hands, and could add, according to instruction, any postscript, or continuation of one, in the very form and turn of letters wherein the rest of the epistle was written, to draw out such farther intelligence as was wanted for a complete discovery from the traitors themselves, of their treasonable intercourse. Mr. Bales was famous for this dangerous talent, and was employed to exercise the same, sometimes, for the service of the state. A few years after, about 1589, and not long before the death of the said secretary, Bales, by a friend, complained that some preferment which he had been led to expect, had not been settled upon him, for what he had formerly performed in behalf of the government before the said queen’s death and, upon the merit of this service, he was several years after in quest of a place at court, though we cannot find that he ever obtained it. It appears also, that he had some occasion given him to write er speak something in defence of accurate penmen, or those who were masters in the art of writing, against the unreasonable and illiberal insinuations of some supercilious courtier, who would have objected his profession against his promotion, as if writing were but a mechanic art, and the masters of it fitter to guide the hands of boys than the heads of men. Bales took much pains to confute these objections, and although disappointed, he continued to follow his business, teaching the sons and daughters of many persons of distinction, some at their own houses, others at his school, situated at the upper end of the Old Bailey, where also some of the best citizens sent their children. Here we find him in 1590, publishing the first fruits of his pen, as he observes in his epistle, his “Writing Schoolmaster, in three parts.” From the first of which, shewing how, by the contraction of words into literal abbreviations, the pen of a writer may keep pace with the tongue of a moderate speaker, Mr. Evelyn conceived he was the inventor of short-hand, but he was rather the improver of a scheme published about two years before (1588) by Dr. Timothy Bright, a physician of Cambridge yet his improvement was so great as perhaps to constitute him the founder of all those successive systems of short-hand which have since led to perfection in this useful art.

In or not long after 1592, he was employed in writing for or to sir John Puckering, lord keeper of the great seal, whose servant he styles himself; and it is certain there were several petitions, letters, &c. about that time, written in the fine small secretary and Italian hands, by Bales, among that lord keeper’s, papers, many of which are still in being. Among the rest there are several letters written by one TopclilFe, who was much employed about the country in marching out the Popish priests and their plots, and he made some discoveries which it was necessary to communicate in a secret manner but disliking the use of multiplied alphabets, as a method too tedious, preferred an invention of Bales’Sj which is called his lineal alphabet, or character of dashes, as the shortest and simplest he had heard of, wherein every letter was expressed by a single straight stroke, only in different postures and places. Bale was also one of the earliest writing-masters who had his specimens engraven on copper-plates, and one of those occurs in Hondius’s “Theatrum Artis Scribendi,” fol. 1614. On Michaelmas day, in 1595, he being then forty-eight years of age, had a great trial of skill in the Blackfryers, with one Daniel Johnson, for a golden pen of twenty pounds value, and won it, though his antagonist was a younger man by above eighteen years, and was therefore expected to have the advantage of a greater steadiness of hand. We are further told by a contemporary author, that he had also the arms of calligraphy given him, which are, Azure, a pen Or, at a prize, where solemn trial was made for mastery in this art, among the best penmen in London, which being a trial among more opponents than one, this, wherein the said arms were given to him, should seem different from that wherein he won the golden pen from Daniel Johnson before-mentioned, That is the first contention we meet with for the golden pen, though other memorable ones have since occurred. In 1597, when here-published his “Writing Schoolmaster,” he was in such high reputation for it, that no less than eighteen copies of commendatory verses, composed by learned and ingenious men of that time, were printed before it. He also, by other exercises of his pen, recommended himself to many other persons of knowledge and distinction, particularly by making fair transcripts of the learned and ingenious compositions of some honourable authors, which they designed as presentation-books to the queen, or others their friends or patrons, of high dignity; some of which manuscripts have been, for the beauty of them, as well as for their instructive contents, preserved as curiosities to these times. “Among the Harleian Mss. (now in the British Museum) No. 2368, there is a thin vellum book in small 4to, called Archeion. At the end of that treatise is a neat flourish, done by command of hand, wherein are the letters P. B. which shews, says a note in that book, that this copy was written by the hand po Peter Bales, the then famous writing-master of London,” We know not very particularly what other branches of the art he cultivated, but he was distinguished also with the title of a scrivener, as if he had some time professed the business of writing contracts, or drawing deeds, or other instruments, unless the signification of that word was not then confined, as it is now, to that particular business.

It has been said that Bales was engaged in the earl of Essex’s treasons in 1600, but he appears to have been entrapped by one John Danyell of Deresburie, esq. who, resolving out of the distresses of his lord to raise a considerable addition to his own substance, induced Bales to imitate some of that earl’s letters; but Danyell was sentenced in the Star-chamber, upon the evidence of Bales and other witnesses, in June 1601, to pay a fine of 3000l. for which his whole effects were extented, also to be exposed on the pillory, and endure perpetual imprisonment besides, for his forgery, fraud, and extortion. Bales was, indeed, for a short time, under some confinement, that they might be certain of his evidence at the trial and we find also that he wrote a large declaration to the countess of Essex, and, it seems, at her request or command, in which he set forth the whole manner of his engagement, and the justification of his conduct in this business. We have little more of Bales after this, except that he is supposed to have died about 1610.

, an English physician, the son of Henry Baley of Warnweli in Dorsetshire, was born in 1529, at Portsham in that county, educated at Winchester school, and admitted perpetual fellow of New college in Oxford, in 1550, after having served two years of probation. Having taken the degrees of B. A. and M. A. he studied physic, and was admitted to practise in that faculty in 1558, being at that time proctor of the university, and prebendary of Dultingcote or Dulcot in the church of Wells, which preferment he resigned in 1579. In 1561, he was appointed the queen’s professor of physic in the university of Oxford. Two years after he took the degree of doctor in that faculty, and at last was appointed physician in ordinary to her majesty. He was esteemed to be very skilful in theory and successful in practice. He died March 3, 1592, at sixty-three years of age, and was buried in the inner chapel of New college, Oxford. His posterity, Mr. Wood tells us, subsisted at Ducklington near Whitney in Oxfordshire, and some of them had been justices of the peace for the said county. His works were, 1. “A discourse of three kinds of Pepper in common use,” 1558, 8vo. 2. “A brief treatise of the preservation of the Eye-sight,” printed in queen Elizabeth’s reign in 12mo, and at Oxford in 1616 and 1654, 8vo. In the edition of 1616 there is added another “Treatise of the Eye-sight,” collected from Fernelius and lliolanus, but by what hand we are not told. They both pass under Dr. Baley’s name. 3. “Directions for Health, natural and artificial, with medicines for all diseases of the Eye,” 1626, 4to. 4. “Explicatio Galeni de potu convalescentium et senum, et praecipue de nostree alae et biriae paratione,” &c. in ms. 4to, in the library of Robert earl of Aylesbury.

, an eminent divine of the church of England in the last century, was born on the 12th of August 1686, at Sheffield in Yorkshire. His father, Thomas JBalguy, who died in 1696, was master of the free grammarschool in that place, and from him he received the first rudiments of his grammatical education. After his father’s death he was put under the instruction of Mr. Daubuz, author of a commentary on the Revelations, who succeeded to the mastership of the same school, Sept. 23, 1696, for whom he always professed a great respect. In 1702 he was admitted of St. John’s college, Cambridge, under the care of Dr. Edmondson and of Dr. Lambert, afterwards master of that college. He frequent^ lamented, in the succeeding part of his life, that he had wasted nearly two years of his residence there in reading romances. But, at the end of that tinie happening to meet with Livy, he went through him with great delight, and afterwards applied himself to serious studies. In 1705-6, he was admitted to the degree of B. A. and to that of M. A. in 1726. Soon after he had taken his bachelor’s degree, he quitted the university, and was engaged, for a while, in teaching the free school at Sheffield, but whether he was chosen master, oxonly employed during a vacancy, does not appear. On the 15th of July 1708, he was taken into the family of Mr. Banks, as private tutor to his son, Joseph Banks, esq. air terwards of Reresby in the county of Lincoln, and grandfather of the present sir Joseph Banks, K. B. so eminently distinguished for his skill in natural history, and the expences, labours, and voyages, he has undergone to promote that part of science. Mr. Balguy, in 1710, was admitted to deacon’s orders, and in 1711 to priest’s by Dr. Sharp, archbishop of York. By Mr. Banks’ s means, he was introduced to the acquaintance of Mr. Bright of Badsworth, in the county of York, and was by him recommended to his father, sir Henry Liddel, of llavensworth castle, who in 1711 took Mr. Balguy into his family, and bestowed upon him the donative of Lamesly and Tanfield in that county. For the first four years after he had obtained thissmall preferment, he did not intermit one week without composing a new sermon and desfrous that so excellent an example should be followed by his son, he destroyed almost his whole stock, and committed, at one time, two hundred and fifty to the flames. In July 1715, he married Sarah, daughter of Christopher and Sarah Broomhead of Sheffield. She was born in 1686, and by her he had only a son, the late Dr. Thomas Balguy, archdeacon of Winchester. After his marriage he left sir Henry Liddel' s family, and lived at a house not far distant, called Cox close, where he enjoyed, for many years, the friendship of George Liddel, esq. member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, a younger son of sir Henry, who usually resided at Raven sworth castle. The first occasion of Mr. Balguy’s appearance as an author, was afforded by the Bangorian controversy. In 1718 he published, without his name, “Silvius’s examination of certain doctrines lately taught and defended by the. llev. Mr. Stebbing;” and, in the following year, “Silvius’s letter to the Rev. Dr, Sherlock.” Both of these performances were written in vindication of bishop Hoadly. Mr. Stehbing having written against these pamphlets, Mr. Balguy, in 1720, again appeared from the press, in the cause of the-bishop, in a tract entitled “Silvius’s defence of a dialogue between a Papist and a Protestant, in answer to the Rev. Mr. Stebbing; to which are added several remarks and observations upon that author’s manner of writing.” This also being answered by Mr. Stebbing, Mr. Balguy had prepared a farther defence but Dr. Hoadly prevailed Upon him to suppress it, on account of the public’s having grown weary of the controversy, and the unwillingness of the booksellers to venture upon any new works relating to it, at their own risk, For a different reason the bishop persuaded him, though with difficulty, to abstain from printing another piece which he had written, called “A letter to Dr. Clarke/' of whom, through his whole life, he was a great admirer. In 1726 he published” A letter to a deist cocerning the beauty and excellence of Moral Virtue, and the support and improvement which it receives from the Christian revelation.“In this treatise he has attacked, with the greatest politeness, and with equal strength of reason, some of the principles advanced by lord Shaftesbury, in his” Inquiry concerning Virtue.“On the 25th of January, 1727-8, Mr. Balguy was collated, by bishop Hoadly, to a prebend in the church of Salisbury, among the advantages of which preferment was the right of presenting to four livings, and of presenting alternately to two others. The best of them did not fall in his life-time. But two small livings were disposed of by him one to the Rev. Christopher Robinson, who married his wife’s sister; the other to his own son. In 1727 or 1728, he preached an assize sermon at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the subject of which was party spirit. It was printed by order of the judges, and either inscribed or dedicated to Dr. Talbot, bishop of Durham.” The foundation of Moral Goodness, or a farther inquiry into the original of our idea of Virtue,“was published by him in 1728, This performance, which is written in a very masterly and candid manner, was in, answer to Mr. Hutcheson’s” Inquiry into the original of our ideas of Beauty and Virtue“and its design is to shew that moral goodness does not depend solely upon instincts and affections, but is grounded on the unalterable reason of things. Mr. Balguy acquired, about this time, the friendship of Dr. Talbot, bishop of Durham, for which he was chiefly indebted to Dr. llundle, afterwards bishop of Derry though something, perhaps, might be due to his acquaintance with Dr. Benson, Dr. Seeker, and Dr. Butler. Through the assistance of his friends in the chapter of Durham, supported by the good offices of bishop Talbot, he obtained, on the 12th of August 1729, the vicarage of North-AJlerton in Yorkshire, at that time worth only 270l. a year, on which preferment he continued to his death. This was, in some measure, his own fault, for he neglected all the usual methods of recommending himself to his superiors. He had many invitations from Dr. Blackburne, archbishop of York, and Dr. Chandler, bishop of Durham but he constantly refused to accept of them. In the same year he published ”The second part of the foundation of Moral Goodness illustrating and enforcing the principles and reasonings contained in the former being an answer to certain remarks communicated by a gentleman to the author.“The writer of these remarks was lord Darcy. His next publication was” Divine Rectitude or, a brief inquiry concerning the Moral Perfections of the Deity, particularly in respect of Creation and Providence.“A question then much agitated was, concerning the first spring of action in the Deity. This is asserted by our author to be rectitude, while Mr. Grove contended that it is wisdom, and Mr. Bayes, a dissenting minister of Tunbridge, that it is benevolence. The difference between Mr. Grove and Mr. Balguy was chiefly verbal but they both differed materially from Mr. Bayes, as they supposed that God might have ends in view, distinct from, and sometimes interfering with the happiness of his creatures. The essay on divine rectitude was followed by” A second letter to a deist, concerning a late book, entitled ‘ Christianity as old as the Creation,’ more particularly that chapter which relates to Dr. Clarke.“To this succeeded” The law of Truth, or the obligations of reason essential to all religion to which are prefixed some remarks supplemental to a late tract entitled “Divine Rectitude.” All the treatises that have been mentioned (excepting the assize sermon, and the pieces which were written in the Bangorian controversy) were collected, after having gone through several separate editions, by Mr. Balguy, into one volume, and published with a dedication to bishop Hoadly. This dedication was reprinted in the late edition of the works of that prelate, together with two letters of the bishop relating to it, one to Mr. Balguy, and the other to lady Sundon. The greatest regard for our author is expressed by Dr. Hoadly in both these letters, and he acknowledges the pleasure it gave him to receive the sincere praises of a man whom he so highly esteemed. In 1741 appeared Mr. Balguy’s “Essay on Redemption,” in which he explains the doctrine of the atonement in a manner similar to that of Dr. Taylor of Norwich, but Hoadly was of opinion he had not succeeded. This, and his volume of sermons, iittluding six which had been published before, were the last pieces committed by him to the press . A posthumous volume was afterwards printed, which contained almost the whole of the sermons he left behind him. Mr, Balguy may justly he reckoned among the divines and writers who rank with Clarke and Hoadly, in maintaining what they term the cause of rational religion and Christian liberty. His tracts will be allowed to be masterly in their kind, by those who may not entireJy agree with the philosophical principles advanced in them and his sermons have long been held in esteem, as some of the best in the English language. He was remarkable for his moderation to dissenters of every denomination, not excepting even Roman Catholics, though no man had a greater abhorrence of popery. Among the Presbyterians and Quakers he had a number of friends, whom he loved and valued, and with several of them he kept up a correspondence of letters as well as visits. Among other dissenters of note, he was acquainted with the late lord Barrington, and Philips Glover, esq. of Lincolnshire, author of an “Inquiry concerning Virtue and Happiness,” published after his decease in 1751. With the last gentleman Mr. Balguy had a philosophical correspondence. Having always had a weakly constitution, his want of health induced him, in the decline of life, to withdraw almost totally from company, excepting what he found at Harrogate, a place which he constantly frequented every season, and where at last he died, on the 21st of September, 1748, in the sixtythird year of his age. With regard co the letter to Dr. Clarke, which Hoadiy prevented him from publishing, we have the following information from a note in the Biographia Britannica. “From two letters of bishop Hoadly to Mr. Balguy, it appears that both the bishop and Dr. Clarke were exceedingly fearful of any thing’s being published which might be prejudicial to the doctor’s interest so that he could not then (1720) have come to the resolution which he afterwards formed, of declining farther preferment, rather than repeat his subscription to the thirty-nine articles. The solicitude of Dr. Hoadly and Dr. Clarke to prevent Mr. Balguy’s intended publication, was the more remarkable, as it did not relate to the Trinity, or to any obnoxious point in theology; but to the natural immortality of the soul, and such philosophical questions as might have been deemed of an innocent and indifferent nature.”

, D. D. son of the above, was born at his father’s residence at Cox-close, near Ravensworth castle, Sept. 27, 1716, and was admitted of St. John’s college, Cambridge, about 1732. He proceeded B.A. 1737, M. A. 1741, and S.T.P. 1758, In 1746, he was presented by his father to the North mediety or rectory of North Stoke, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, which was probably the first preferment he had, and which he vacated in 1771, on being presented to the vicarage of Alton in Hampshire. By the interest of bishop Hoadly, he obtained a prebend at Winchester, 1757, became archdeacon of Salisbury in 1759, and afterwards archdeacon of Winchester. We have his own authority in his life of his father, as given in the Biog. Britannica, that he owed all his preferments to bishop Hoadly, from whose latitudinarian principles, however, he appears to have departed more widely than his father.

In 1769, he published “A Sermon preached in Lamv foeth chapel, Feb. 12, 1769, at the consecration of the right rev. Dr. Shute Barrington, bishop of Llandaff.” This was attempted to be answered by Dr. Priestley in a vague and unargumentative pamphlet, entitled “Observations on Church Authority.” In 1772, he published a very able defence of subscriptions to articles of religion, in “A charge delivered to the Clergy” of his archdeaconry, which produced a reply from the rev. John Palmer, a dissenting minister, dated Macclesfield. In 1775, Dr. Balguy published “A sermon on the respective Duties of Ministers and People, at the consecration of the right rev. Richard Hurd, D. D. bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and the right rev. John Moore, D.D. bishop of Bangor,” Feb. 12. 4to, which produced “Remarks on Dr. Balguy’s Sermon, in a letter to that gentleman, by one of the petitioning clergy.” In 1775, he edited the sermons of Dr. Powell, master of Jesus college, Cambridge, with a life of that divine prefixed. In 1781, the declining state of his health, and particularly the decay of his sight, which ended at last in total blindness, prevented his acceptance of the bishopric of Gloucester, to which his majesty, without any solicitation, had nominated him, on the cteath of bishop Warburton. This he gratefully acknowledges in the dedication of his discourses to the king. In 178^, he published “Divine Benevolence asserted, and vindicated from the reflections of ancient and modern sceptics,” 8vo, which is thought by far the ablest of his performances, but was only part of a larger dissertation on natural religion, which he did not live to complete. In 1785, he republished his father’s “Essay on Redempton,” with a preface seemingly intended to bring his father’s sentiments nearer to the orthodox belief. A collection of his sermons and charges appeared the same year under the title of “Discourses on various subjects,” 8vo. He died Jan. 19, 1795, in his seventy-ninth year, at his prebendal house at Winchester, and was buried in the cathedral, with an inscription giving him the character of a sincere and exemplary Christian, a sound and accurate scholar, a strenuous and able defender of the Christian religion, and of the church of England.

, founder of Balliol college in Oxford, was the son of Hugh de Balliol of Bernard’s castle in the diocese of Durham. He was a person very eminent for power and riches, being possessed of thirty knights’ fees, about 12,000l. a considerable estate in those times. But he received a great addition thereto, by his marriage with Dervorgille, one of the three daughters and coheiresses of Alan of Galloway (a great baron in Scotland), by Margaret the eldest sister of John Scott, the last earl of Chester, and one of the heirs to David, some time earl of Huntingdon. From 1248 to 1254 he was sheriff of the county of Cumberland and in 1248 was constituted governor of the castle of Carlisle. Upon the marriage of Margaret daughter of king Henry 111. to Alexander III. king of Scotland, the guardianship of them both, and of that kingdom, was committed to our sir John de Balliol, and to another lord but, about three years after, they were accused of abusing their trust, and the king inarched towards Scotland with an army, to chastise them. However, in consideration of the many important services performed, in the most difficult times, to K. John the king’s father, by Hugh, our John BallioPs father and especially by a sum of money, he soon made his peace. In the year 1258, he had orders to attend the king at Chester, with horse and arms, to oppose the incursions of Lhewelyn prince of Wales. And two years after, in recompence of his service to king Henry, as well in France as in England, he had a grant of two hundred marks for discharging which, the king gave him the wardship of William de Wassingle. In part of the years 1260, 1261> 1262, 1263, and 1264, he was sheriff for the counties of Nottingham and Derby; and in 1261, was appointed keeper of the honour of Peverell. In 1263, he began the foundation and endowment of Balliol college in Oxford > which was perfected afterwards by his widow. Duririg the contests and war between ^king Henry III. and his barons > he firmly adhered to the king on which account his lands were seized and detained by the barons, but restored again through one of his sons’ interposition. In 1264, he attended the king at the battle of Northampton, wherein the barons were defeated but, the year following, he was taken prisoner, with many others, after the king’s fatal overthrow at Lewes. It appears that he soon after made his escape^ and endeavoured to keep the northern parts of England in king Henry’s -obedience, and having obtained authority from prince Edward, he joined with other of the northern barons, and raised all the force he could to rescue the king from his confinement. He died a little before Whitsuntide, in the year 1269, or as Savage, the historian of Balliol college, thinks, in 1266; leaving, three sons behind him, Hugh, and Alexander, who both died without issue and John, afterwards chosen king of Scotland.

, a Puritan divine of the seventeenth century, was born in 1585> of an obscure family, at Cassington or Chersington, near Woodstock in Oxfordshire* He was educated in grammar learning at a private school, under the vicar of Yarnton, a mile distant from Cassington and was admitted a student of Brazen-nose college in Oxford in 1602. He continued there about five years, in the condition of a servitor, and under the discipline of a severe tutor and from thence he removed to St. Mary’s hall, and took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1608. Soon after, he was invited into Cheshire, to be tutor to the lady Cholmondeley’s children and here he became acquainted witli some rigid Puritans, whose principles he imbibecL About this time, having got a sum of money, he came up to London, and procured himself to be ordained by an Irish bishop, without subscription. Soon after, he removed into Staffordshire, and in 1610 became curate of Whitmore, a chapel of ease to Stoke. Here he lived in a mean condition, upon a salary of about twenty pounds a year, and the profits of a little school. Mr. Baxter tells us, “he deserved as high esteem and honour as the best bishop in England yet looking after no higher things, but living comfortably and prosperously with these.' 7 He has, among the Puritan writers, the character of an excellent schooldivine, a painful preacher, and a learned and ingenious author and, though he was not well affected to ceremonies and church discipline, yet he wrote against those who thought such matters a sufficient ground for separation, He died the 20th of October, 1640, aged about fifty-five, and was buried in the church of Whitmore. Although he is represented above, on the authority of Ant. Wood, as living in a mean condition, it appears by Clarke’s more ample account, that he was entertained in the house of Edward Mainwaring, esq. a gentleman of Whitmore, and afterwards supplied by him with a house, in which he lived comfortably with a wife and seven children. He was likewise very much employed in teaching, and particularly in, preparing young men for the university. His works are, 1.” A short treatise concerning all the principal grounds of the Christian Religion, &c.“fourteen times printed before the year 1632, and translated into the Turkish language by William Seaman, an English traveller. 2.” A treatise of Faith, in two parts the first shewing the nature, the second, the life of faith,“London, 1631, and 1637, 4to, with a commendatory preface, by Richard Sibbs. 3.” Friendly trial of the grounds tending to Separation, in a plain and modest dispute touching the unlawfulness of stinted Liturgy and set form of Common Prayer, communion in mixed assemblies, and the primitive subject and first receptacle of the power of the keys, &c.“Cambridge, 1640, 4to. 4.” An Answer to two treatises of Mr. John Can, the first entitled A necessity of Separation from the Church of England, proved by the Nonconformist’s principles; the other, A stay against Straying; wherein^ in opposition to Mr. John Robinson, he undertakes to prove the unlawfulness of hearing the ministers of the church of England,“London, 1642, 4to, published by Simeon Ash. The epistle to the reader is subscribed by Thomas Langley, William Rathband, Simeon Ash, Francis Woodcock, and George Croft, Presbyterians. After our author had finished this last book, he undertook a large ecclesiastical treatise, in which he proposed to lay open the nature of schism, and to handle the principal controversies relating to the essence and government of the visible church. He left fifty sheets of this work finished. The whole was too liberal for those of his brethren who were for carrying their nonconformity into hostility against the church. 5.” Trial of the new Church- way in New-England and Old, &c.“London, 1644, 4to. 6.” A treatise of the Covenant of Grace,“London, 1645, 4to, published by his great admirer Simeon Ash. 7.” Of the power of Godliness, both doctrinally and practically handled,“&c. To which are annexed several treatises, as, I. Of the Affections. II. Of the spiritual Combat. III. Of the Government of the Tongue. IV. Of Prayer, with an exposition on the Lord’s Prayer, London, 1657, fol. 8.” A treatise of Divine Meditation," Lond. 1660, 12mo.

, an English antiquary and biographer, and one of those singular compositions which shoot forth without culture, was born at Campden in Gloucestershire. Being of a weakly constitution, his parents placed him in the shop of a habit-maker; and in this situation he had the curiosity to acquire the Saxon language. The time he employed for this purpose was stolen from sleep, after the labour of the day was over. Lord Chedworth, and the gentlemen of his hunt, who used to spend about a month of the season at Campden, hearing of his laudable industry, generously offered him an annuity of 100l. but he modestly told them, that 60l. were fully sufficient to satisfy both his wants and his wishes. Upon this he retired to Oxford, for the benefit of the Bodleian library; and Dr. Jenner, president, made him one of the eight clerks of Magdalen college, which furnished him with chambers and commons, and being thus a gremial, he was afterwards chosen one of the university beadles, but died in June, 1755, rather young; which is supposed to have been owing to too intense application. He left large collections behind him, but published only “Memoirs of British Ladies, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages, arts, and sciences,” 1752, 1J 4to, a work of great research and entertainment. It was reprinted in 1775, 8vo. He drew up an account of Campden church, which was read at the society of antiquaries, Nov. 21, 1771. There is a letter of Mr. Thomas Hearne to Mr. Baker, dated Oxford, July 3, 1735, from which Mr. Nichols has produced the following surly extract “I know not what additions Mr. George Ballard can make to Mr. Stowe’s life; this I know, that being a taylor himself, he is a great admirer of that plain honest antiquary,” who was also a taylor. A very large collection, of his epistolary correspondence is preserved in the Bodleian library.

, brothers, born at Verona, the former in 1698, the latter in 1702, were both of them priests and scholars, especially in ecclesiastical history. United by a common predilection for the same studies, no less than by the ties of blood, they studied usually together, dividing their labour according to their particular talents. Subjects purely theological and canonical fell to the lot of Peter points of history and criticism became the task of Jerom. The former died in 1769. Besides several works of their own, the public is indebted to their care for the correct editions of 1. The Summa Theological is of St. Antoninus, as well as that of St. Raiinond de Pegnafort; 2. The works of St. Leo the Great; 3. Those of Gilbert bishop of Verona 4. A complete edition of all the works of cardinal Noris, with notes, dissertations, &c. printed at Verona 1732, 4 vols. fol. 5. A small tract, in Italian, on the method of study, Verona, 1724, Rome, 1757.

, citizen of Geneva, who was born in 1726, and died in 1774, is known by a judicious performance, entitled “Ueducation physique des enfans,” 1762, 8vo, of which M. David, physician at Paris, gave a second edition in 1780, with annotations. This dissertation, crowned by the society of sciences at Haerlem in 1762, abounds with excellent observations. The author begins from the moment of birth, and conducts his pupils tp the age of puberty. We have likewise of him a dissertation of no less importance than the foregoing, on this question What are the principal causes of the death of so great a number of children 1775.

, born at Paris, in 1615, was the son of a goldsmith, and became a goldsmith himself. He began to be known in the time of cardinal Richelieu, who bought of him four large silver basons, on which Ballin, hardly 19 years old, had curiously represented the four ages of the world. The cardinal, who was never weary of admiring these masterpieces of workmanship, employed him to make four vases, from the antique, to match with the basons. Ballin brought ins art to the summit of perfection. He executed for Louis XIV. silver tables, girandoles, sophas, lustres, vases, &c. But that monarch was obliged to convert them all into money, to supply the expences of the tedious war that was terminated by the peace of Ryswic. Several works by this great artist are still, or were formerly, at Paris, at St. Denys, and at Pontoise, of singular beauty and delicacy. On the death of Varin, being appointed to the direction of the dies for striking medals and counters, he shewed in these littte works the same taste he had displayed in the larger. To the beauties of the antique he added the graces of the moderns. He died the 22d of Jan. 1678, at the age of 63. He had scarcely ever been out of Paris and gave a proof that foreign travel is not always necessary in order to excel in the fine arts. Launoi, a kinsman of Ballin by marriage, an excellent goldsmith, and an expert designer, made drawings of almost all the works of his relation, previous to the sale of them, by Louis XIV.

, a French antiquary, was born at Marnay, in 1700, and entered the order of the barefooted Carmelites. He was afterwards promoted to be bishop of Babylon, and French consul, and during his residence in the east, acquired the esteem and confidence of the native powers, as well as of the French merchants. He published “Relation faite a Rome, 1754, a le pape Benoit XIV. du commencement, du progres, et de l'etat present de la mission de Babylone,” Fr. and Lat. Rome, 1754, 12mo, which, although often reprinted, is nowscarce. He had also a taste for the fine, arts, and formed a noble collection of medals, amounting to six thousand three hundred pieces, of which one of his nephews printed a catalogue. Having travelled over the Christian establishments of Asia, he had an opportunity of examining the accounts of former travellers, and his observations, in the form of a journal, were deposited in the library of the duke of Orleans. From these D'Anville extracted the description of an ancient piece of sculpture, which he inserted in vol. XVII. of the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions. Ballyet died of the plague, at Bagdad, in 1773.

, one of the promoters of the reformation in Scotland, was born at Kircaldy, in the county of Fife, in the reign of James V. and educated at the university of St. Andrew’s. He afterwards went to France, in order to complete his studies and, returning to Scotland, was admitted into the family of the earl of Arran, who at that time governed the kingdom; but in the year 1542 the earl dismissed him, for having embraced the Protestant religion. In 1546 he joined the murderers of cardinal Beaton, although without having been concerned in that act, yet for this he was declared a traitor, and excommunicated. Whilst that party were besieged in the castle of St. Andrew’s, they sent Balnaves lo England, who returned with a considerable supply of provisions and money but, being at last obliged to surrender to the French, he was sent, with the rest of the garrison, to France. He returned to Scotland about the year 1559, and having joined the congregation, he was appointed one of the commissioners to treat with the duke of Norfolk on the part of queen Elizabeth. In 1563 he was made one of the lords of session, and appointed by the general assembly, with other learned men, to revise the book of discipline. The celebrated reformer Knox, his contemporary, gives him the character of a very learned and pious divine, and we learn from Calderwood’s ms history, and from Sadler’s State Papers, that he raised himself by his talents and probity, from an obscure station to the first honours of the state, and was justly regarded as one of the principal supporters of the reformed cause in Scotland. It is added, that when a boy, he travelled to the continent, and hearing of a free school at Cologne, procured admission to it, and received a liberal education. He died at Edinburgh in 1579. It was during his confinement at Rouen in France that he wrote a treatise on justification, and the works and conversation of a justified man, which was revised hy Knox, who added a recommendatory dedication, and desired it might he printed. The ms. however, was not discovered until after Knox’s death, when it was published in 1584, 8vo, with the title of “Confession of Faith, &c. by Henry Balnaves, of Halhill, one of the lords of council, and lords of session.” According to Irvine, it was printed at Edinburgh, but M'Rie speaks of a London edition of the same date. Mackenzie erroneously divides it into two works, one “A treatise concerning Justification,” Edin. 1550, and the other, “A Catechism or Confession of Faith,” ib. 1584, From a poem subscribed Balnaves, having appeared in Ramsay’s collection, he has been ranked among the minor poets of Scotland.

, an eminent scholar of the Greek church, who flourished about the end of the twelfth century, was chancellor and library keeper of the church of Constantinople, and provost of that of Blachern. He was also nominated patriarch of Antioch, but never was installed, and was flattered by the emperor Isaac Comnenus, with the hope of being advanced to the patriarchal see of Constantinople, which he never attained. He composed several valuable works, the chief of which are 1. “Cornmentarius in Canones Ss. Apostolorum, &c.” Paris, 1620, fol. but a far better edition, by Beveridge, Oxf. 1672, in his Pandects o*f Canons. 2. “Commentarius in Photii Nomocanonem,” Paris, 1615, 4to. 3. “Collectio ecclesiasticarum Constitutionum,” printed in Justelli Bibliotheca Juris Canon, vol. II. 4. “Responsa ad varias questiones Jus Canonicum spectantes,” in Leunclavius’ Jus Gr. Rom. lib. 2. 5. “Responsa ad interrogationes Murci patriarchs Alexandria!,” Gr. et Lat. ibid. 6. “Meditata, sive responsa ad varios casus,” ibid. &c. The time of Balsamon’s death is not ascertained, but he was certainly alive in 1203, when Constantinople was taken by the Latins. Baronius and other adherents to the church of Rome speak with disrespect of Balsamon, but Dupin, with his usual candour.

, or de Bedesale, or Belesale, the tenth bishop of Ely, and founder of St. Peter’s college, or Peter-house, in Cambridge, was in all probability born at Balsham, in Cambridgeshire, from whence he took his surname, about the beginning of the thirteenth century. He was at first a monk, and afterwards sub-prior of the Benedictine monastery at Ely. In 1247, November 13, he was chosen, by his convent, bishop of Ely, in the room of William de Kilkenny, deceased, but king Henry III. who had recommended his chancellor, Henry de Wengham, being angry at the disobedience of the monks, refused to confirm the election, and wasted the manors and estates belonging to the bishoprick. He endeavoured at last to persuade the monks to proceed to a new election aU ledging, that it was not fit so strong a place as Ely should be intrusted with a man that had scarcely ever been out of his cloister, and who was utterly unacquainted with political affairs. Balsham, finding he was not likely to succeed at home, went to Rome, in order to be confirmed by the pope who then was allowed to dispose of all ec^ clesiastical preferments. In the mean time, Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, used his interest at Rome to obstruct Balsham’s confirmation, though he could alledge jiothing against him and recommended Adam de Maris, a learned Minorite friar, to the bishopric but all his endeavours proved unsuccessful. As to Wengham, having been recommended by the king without his own desire and knowledge, he declined the honour, alledging that the two others, (Balsham and Maris), were more worthy of it than himself. This matter remained in suspense for above ten years, and was at length determined in favour of Balsham for Wengham being promoted to the bishopric of London, upon Folk de Basset’s decease, the pope confirmed Balsham’s election on the 10th of March, 1257, and he was, consecrated the 14th of October following. Being thus fived in his see, he applied himself to works of charity, and particularly in the year 1257, or 1259, according ta some, put in execution what he had designed, if not begun, before, the foundation of St. Peter’s college, the first college in the university of Cambridge. He built it without Trumpingtun gate, near the church of St. Peter, (since demolished), from whence it took its name and on the place where stood Jesus hostel, or de poenitentia Jcsu Christ i, and St. John’s hospital., which he purchased, and united. At first, he only provided lodgings for the scholars, who were before obliged to hire chambers of the townsmen at an extravagant rate and they, and the secular brethren of St. John the Baptist, lived together till the year 1280. Then the monks making over to him their right to the hospital above-mentioned, he endowed his college on the 30th of March of the same year, with maintenance for one master, fourteen fellows, two bible-clerks, and eight poor scholars, whose number might be increased or diminished, according to the improvement or abatement of their revenues. And he appointed his successors, the bishops of Ely, to be honorary patrons and visitors of that college. The revenues of it have since been augmented by several benefactors. The munificent founder had not the satisfaction to see all things finished before his decease. He died at Dodington, June 16, 1286, and was buried in the cathedral church of Ely, before the high altar.

, a man of great learning and merit, was born about 1588, and applied himself chiefly to the study of ecclesiastical history, which gave him a disgust to the Romish, and a desire to embrace the Protestant religion. He had a considerable post, that of king’s advocate, in the presidial of Auxerre; and as he must either resolve to abandon it, or not change his religion, he was some time perplexed, but at last he conscientiously determined to leave Auxerre, his estate, his post, his relations, and friends, and go to Charenton, where he publicly joined himself to the reformed church, and continued in it till his death, edifying his brethren, both by his exemplary life, and his discourses. The expence which he was obliged to be at in Paris, being too great for his circumstances, and his conversion rendering him too obnoxious in that city, he accepted an invitation to Castres from M. de Faur, a rich young counsellor of the bipartite court of the edict, who gave him a lodging in his house, and a proper pension, happy to have with him a man of learning, by whose instructions and conversation he might profit. But as Balthasar had an inclination to labour for the public, he wished to have all his time at his own disposal, and for that reason took his leave of his host. His design was favoured by the national synod of Loudun, in the year 1659 for that assembly granted him a pension of 750 livres to be paid by all the churches of France, according to the repartition that was made of them. He had prepared, before that synod was held, a considerable number of dissertations upon important subjects, against cardinal Baronius, which he entitled “Diatribse.” He put four or five into the hands of a minister of Castres, who was one of the deputies of the province of Upper Languedoc and Upper Guienne. They were presented to Mr. Daille, moderator of that national synod, an excellent judge, who was extremely pleased with them, and gave a very advantageous character of them to the whole assembly. He then carried them to Paris, where it was hoped they would be printed, but either proper measures were not taken, or could not be taken, for that purpose. The author, who was very old, and troubled with the stone, died in 1670. Pvlr. Daille* died too and after that, the church of Castres sent repeated letters to recover those dissertations, but could never discover what became of them. Mr. Balthasar left others, which were not finished, and a great many collections, the greatest part of which consisted of separate pieces of paper, in which he had noted clown the authorities and testimonies which he designed to make use of against cardinal Baronius. He wrote also, 1. an eloge on M. Fouquet, in Latin, 1655, 4to. 2. “Traite des usurpations des rois de' Espagne sur la couronne de France, depuis Charles VIII. &c.” Paris, 1626, 8vo, and reprinted in 1645, with an additional discourse on the pretensions of the court of France. 3. “Justice des armes du roi treschretien contre le roi d'Espagne,” Paris, 1657, 4to.

, a famous Italian musician, lived in the reign of Henry III. of France. The marechal de Brissac, governor in Piedmont, sent this musician to the king, together with the whole band of violins, of which he was chief. The queen conferred on him the place of her valet-de-chambre and Henry, after her example, gave him the same office in his house. Balthazarini was the delight of the court, as well by his skill on the violin, as by his invention of ballets, of pieces of music, festivities, and representations. It was he who composed in 1581 the ballet of the nuptials of the due de Joyeuse with mademoiselle de Vaudemont, sister of the queen, a ballet that was represented with extraordinarypomp it was printed under the title of “Ballet Comique de la Heine, fait aux Noces de M. le due de Joyeuse et de Mademoiselle de Vaudemont,” Paris, 1582. Dr. Burney thinks this the origin of the heroic and historical ballets in France.

, a learned French Jesuit, was born at Metz, June 3, 1667, and received into the society of Jesuits, at Nancy, in Nov. 1682. In 1700, when he took the four vows, he was professor of Hebrew in the college of Strasburgh, and before that, when much younger, he taught the lower classes at Dijon, and gave essons on rhetoric at Pont-a-Mousson. In his youth he studied Greek and Latin with ardour, and afterwards applied with equal zeal to Hebrew and Christian antiquities, until his continued study had injured his health. With a view of restoring it by travelling, he was sent from Strasburgh to Dijon, where he had the care of the public library. In 1717 he was called to Rome, and for some time was censor of the press but the air of Rome disagreeing with him, he returned to France, where he was successively rector of the Jesuits colleges at Dijon, at Pont-a-Mousson, and other places. His last employment was that of librarian, at Rheims, where he died, March 9, 1743. He was in very high esteem among his brethren, and acquired considerable reputation by his works, which are, 1. “Oraison funebre de M. Pierre Creagh,” archbishop of Dublin, Strasburgh, 1705, 4to. 2. “Reponse a l'histoire des Onicles de M. de Fontenelle,” Strasburgh, 1707, and 1709, 8vo. It was the general sentiment of the church that the pagan oracles were the work of demons, and that they were silenced by the power of Jesus Christ, until Van Dale, an Anabaptist physician at Haerlem, endeavoured to prove, that these oracles were merely the quackish contrivances of the heathen priests, and that instead of attributing their silence to the power of Christ, we ought to refer it to the destruction of their temples by the Christian emperors. Fontenelle, when writing on this subject, adopted the opinion of Van Dale, and gave it to the public in his own polished and popular style, which induced Baltus to answer him as the chief propagator of this new doctrine, and to address his book to him. Fontenelle made no reply but Le Clerc, in his Bibiiotheque Choisie, for 1707, criticised Baltus’ work in such a manner as to draw from him, 3. “Suite de la Reponse, &c.” Strasburgh, 1708, 8vo, and both the answer and continuation were translated into English by Hickes, and printed 'at London, the first in 1708, and the other in 1709. At the conclusion of the preface to the continuation, he announced another work, in which he promised to examine more closely the platonism attributed to the fathers of the church, and the custom of referring the greatest mysteries of our religion to certain ideas and opinions invented by a pagan philosopher. This he published accordingly under the title 4. “Defense ties Ss. Peres accuses de Platonisme,” Paris, 1711, 4to. Dupin has given a good analysis of this learned work in the second volume of his ecclesiastical authors of the eighteenth century. 5. “Jugement des Ss. Peres sur la morale de la philosophic paienne,” Strasburgh, 1719, 4to. 6. “Reflexions spirituelles et sentimens de piete ciu II. P. Charles de Lorraine,” a trans^ hition from the Italian, Dijon, 1720, 12 mo. 7. “La Vie de Sainte Fabronie,” from the Greek, ib. 1721, 12mo. 8. “Les actes de S. Barlaam,” from the Greek, ib. 1720, 12mo. 9. < Sentimens du R. P. Baltus, sur le traite de la foiblesse de l'esprit humain.“These remarks on M. Huet’s work were addressed to the abbe Olivet, and were printed in the literary and historical memoirs of father Molets. 10. ct La religion Chretienne, prouvee par l‘accomplisserncnt des propheties de l’ancien et du nonveau Testament, suivant la methode des Ss. Peres,” Paris, 1728, 4to. 11. “Defense des propheties de la religion Chretienne,” Paris, 1737, 3 vols. 12mo. In this he examines and refutes the opinions of Grotius at great length, and shews that the most ancient fathers of the church, as Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, &c. never thought of interpreting the prophecies of the old Testament in a double sense but applied them in their literal meaning to the Messiah. The same sentiments he defended in a letter inserted in the Memoires deTrevoux, for March, 1738.

, a learned French writer, was born in 1631, at Tulles, in the province of Guienne, where he began his education, and finished it at Toulouse, obtaining a scholarship in the college of St. Martial. In 1656, Peter de Marca, archbishop of Toulouse, invited him to Paris, which he accepted, and in a little time gained the esteem and entire ron-adence of this prelate. But upon his death, in June 1662, Baluze, looking out for another patron, was agreeably prevented by M. le Tellier, afterwards chancellor of France, who having an intention to engage him in the service of abbe le Tellier his son, afterwards archbishop of Rheims, made him several considerable presents. Some obstacles, however, having happened to prevent his continuance in this family, and Mr. Colbert having offered to make Baluze his library-keeper, he accepted the office with the consent of M. le Tellier. He continued in, this employment till some time after the death of M. Colbert when, not being so well treated by the archbishop of Rouen, he declined being any longer librarian. The excellent collection, however, of manuscripts, and many other books, which are to be found in that library, was formed by his care and advice.

In 1670 he was appointed professor of canon-law in the royal college, with this mark of respect, that the professorship was instituted by the king on his account. In 1668 the abbé Faget had published several works of cle Marca and having, in his life prefixed, asserted, that the archbishop, at his death, had ordered Baluze to give up all his papers in his possession to the president de Marca his son, this raised the resentment of Baluze, who vindicated himself in several severe letters, which he wrote against the abbe“Faget. In 1693 he published his” Lives of the popes of Avignon" with which the king was so much pleased, that he gave him a pension, and appointed him director of the royal college. But he soon felt the uncertainty of courtly favours, for, having attached himself to the cardinal Bouillon, who had engaged him to write the history of his family, he became involved in his disgrace, and received a lettre de cachet, ordering him to retire to Lyons. The only favour he could obtain was, to be first sent to Roan, then to Tours, and afterwards to Orleans. Upon the peace he was recalled, but never employed again as a professor or director of the royal college, nor could he recover his pension. He lived now at a considerable distance from Paris, and was above eighty years of age, yet still continued his application to his studies, and was engaged in publishing St. Cyprian’s works, when he was carried off by death, on the 28th of July 1718. Baluze is to be ranked among those benefactors to literature who have employed their time and knowledge in collecting from all parts ancient manuscripts, and illustrating them with notes. He was extremely versed in this species of learning, and was perfectly acquainted with profane as well as ecclesiastical history, and the canon Jaw, both ancient and modern. He kept a correspondence v.ith all the men of learning in France, and other countries. His conversation was easy and agreeable, and even in his old age he retained great vivacity. He shewed, however, somewhat of caprice in his last will, by appointing n woman, no way related to him, his sole legatee, and leaving nothing to his family and servants.

Niceron has given a list of twenty-nine articles, of which Baluze was either author or editor. The principal are, 1. “Petri de Marca de Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperil/' fol. Paris, 1663, 1669, and 1704. 2.” Salviani Massiliensis et Vincentii Lirinensis Opera, cum Notis,“Paris, 1669, and 1684, 8vo, the last the best edition. 3.” Servati Lupi opera/' Paris, 1664, 8vo, with judicious notes. 4. “Agobardi opera et Leidradi et Amulonis, epistolse et opuscula,” Paris, 2 vols. 8vo. 5. “Petri Castellani vita, auctore Petro Gallandio,” ib. 1674, 8vo. 6. “Marii Mercatoris Opera,” ib. 1684; these two collated with Mss. and enriched by notes illustrative of the history of the middle age. 7. “Miscellanea,” a collection of ancient pieces from manuscripts, 7 vols. 8vo, published in various years from 1678 1715, and reprinted by Mansius in 1761. 8. “Capitularia regum Francorum,” ib. 2 vols. folio. This collection contains several capitularies never published before. Mr. Baluze has corrected them with great accuracy, and has given an account in his preface of the original and authority of the several collections of the capitularies. The kings of France held anciently every year a large assembly, iw which all the public affairs were treated. Jt was composed of all the considerable persons among the clergy and laity, bishops, abbots, and counts. It was in the presence and by the advice of this assembly, that the kings made their constitutions, which were read aloud and after the assembly had given their consent, every person subscribed. These constitutions being abridged and reduced under proper heads were called capitula or chapters, and a collection of several articles was stiled a capitulary. They may be distinguished into three kinds, according to the subjects of them. Those which treat of ecclesiastical affairs were generally taken from the canons, and had the sanction of the bishop’s authority, and therefore might be considered of the same force as the canons. Those which contained general regulations in civil affairs, had properly the real force of laws. And those which related only to certain persons and certain occasions, were only to be considered as particular regulations. The authority of these capitularies was always very great. They were constantly observed in the most exact manner in all the empire of the Francs, that is, in almost all Europe during the reigns of Charlemagne, Lewis the Debonnaire, and his sons. The bishops transcribed them in their councils, and even the popes were ambitious to follow them, as appears by a letter of Leo IV. to the emperor Lotharius, mentioned by Yvo of Chartres and Gratian. They were for a long time in force in Germany as well as in France, and the use of them was not interrupted till the beginning of the third race of the kings of France. Mr. Baluze has added to these capitularies the ancient formularies of Marculfus those of an anonymous author those published by father Sirmond and Mr. Bignon a new Collection of Formularies extracted from divers old Manuscripts; and those of the promotion of bishops published by father Sirmond in the second volume of the Councils of France. 9. “L. C. F. Lactantii Liber, de mortibus persecutorum,” ib. 1680, and Utrecht,